Going home through a starry mirror
by theICEBear
Summary: Buffy Summers is kidnapped and ends up a tenyear old in another universe under the care of Samantha Carter of the SGC. She also might become the greatest hope of her new universe as her life becomes interwoven with SG1's.
1. Prologue

**Going home through a starry mirror**

_-by theICEBear_

**Disclaimer:** All characters portrayed in the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Stargate", "Stargate: SG-1", "Stargate: Atlantis" and "Angel" are the exclusive property of their creators and is used here without their approval. No infringement is intended by the following work. The story in the following work is the exclusive property of the author indicated in the byline above and this work may not be posted, reproduced or edited without the express approval of the author as named above. No direct commercial gain may come from any reproduction of this work.

**Summary:** Crossover with the Stargate universe. Set after season 7 of Buffy and just after season 4 episode 4 of Stargate SG-1. Someone has been attacking the Slayers, disappearing a few then returning their mutilated corpses. Meanwhile, SGC has to react to some rather alarming Tok'ra reports: a group of minor Goa'uld, the offspring of Thoth the banished follower of Anubis, whom they have yet to meet, are reportedly close to perfecting the ultimate host body. And from those events the ripples just spread.

**Author's Notes:** My first attempt at a crossover and I hope this will not disappoint too much. I will do my utmost to maintain somewhat the integrity of the characters however be forewarned this is based in the Stargate universe and expect no easy fixes or characters jumps back and forth. I follow the Stargate plotlines as best I can but expect jumps and starts as nothing big happens that involves Buffy until the middle of this story.

Prologue: 

_In the unfathomable depth that existed between universes, two forces of great power and goodness faced each other. "Could you spare her the death you have planned in her future?" it said, and they immediately knew who._

"_Why her?" the other replied, curious but not angry._

"_I like her, and with us she could find as much peace as war. She would have people looking out for her rather than up to her. And we feel that our Champions need a symbol, something to have faith in, as well. She'll give them a unique perspective and she could be exactly what we need in the future to come," it replied._

"_We knew something was coming for her. If not this, we shall have to watch her either die or become truly tainted by darkness. Rather this than her dying again. We give her to you, but know that we will be requiring you to take good care of her," the other agreed._

"_We have always been gentle masters," it said._

"_True, gentler than us, but your universe is safer than ours," the other said._

"_Also true. This will, however, require that the last bridge be broken. Your hands in the mortal realm cannot be allowed to steal her," it said._

"_We've wanted that bridge gone for a long time, and this way our dark counterparts cannot say a suitable sacrifice wasn't made," the other said with relief._

"_How will you use her? She is a good girl, a warrior, but she is not fully suited for your realm," the other asked._

"_We will adapt her as much as we can without damaging what makes her unique," it said. _

"_It is all agreed, then?" the other asked. It nodded and both went back to set the events in motion._

_------------------------------- _

The smell alone was enough to tell her what the faces of everyone she passed on her way down the hall showed. She could see it in the angry, almost threatening looks. The faces all said the same, each in their different way. Inside was another victim. She walked up, noticing that two police officers were slumped on a bed in the room she passed. She stopped, then saw one of the other Slayers looking guilty. "Why?" she inquired.

"They were about to report it in. I... This is our problem. If the police get involved, then they would just slow us down," the teenager reported, looking a bit sheepish. Buffy sighed, but didn't reprimand her. She knew that the girl's watcher would deal with that after hearing about it or reading it in another watcher's report. Speaking of which, she stepped up next to her own current Watcher, although he was more of a personal assistant than any actual help or authority figure.

"Andrew?" she asked the pale and unhappy-looking guy. He had been her housekeeper, handyman and weapon carrier since Sunnydale. Basically, he was still pathetic but he never judged her and mostly never was around enough to annoy her, although he had bugged the crap out of Dawn when her sister had still lived with her in Rome... Dawn was now in her first semester at Oxford under the watchful eyes of several Council members and roomed with a Slayer, whom Dawn was corrupting thoroughly, according to the phone calls she had gotten from the girl's annoyed watcher. Dutiful sister as she was, she had not relayed a single word to Dawn about that.

Andrew finally stirred and turned to her: "Hi Buffy... Uh, it is another one... This time, she at least still looks mostly intact instead of all those... protrusions and stuff on the last two," he commented.

"Andrew... Let me through," she said, hoping he caught the hint this time. He was blocking her way. She was carrying the device, Willow's little surprise for their new enemy, a potion that would show Buffy what the girl had seen this last week.

"Oh," he realized and stepped aside. She walked by and saw the corpse. It was Michelle, a lovely French Slayer she and Dawn had recruited not long after arriving in Europe. Michelle just lay there naked and dead, apparently killed by something that had gotten to nine other slayers all around the world by now. The Council was in an uproar -- enough of an uproar to pull her out of her semi-retirement of taking a few courses at the university in Rome while trying to find a human inside of all her Slayerness.

-------------------------------

She suppressed the surge of violent rage shared by both parts of her soul as she knelt down, while uncorking the potion bottle, which smelled noxious. She put her hand on Michelle's still slimy head and brought the bottle to her lips. Soon she would finally learn the identities of the enemies that neither spell, slayer, nor watcher had caught even a glimpse of until now.

She hadn't noticed. She never did. It wasn't arrogance, no matter what the younger slayers or the other watchers thought. She walked through them like an alpha wolf moved unchallenged through their pack. He knew it was the same with Faith. There was something mythic about Buffy and Faith. Unconsciously, even the other slayers knew that. Faith and Buffy were superior to them – not just in experience and skill, but somehow also in rank and maybe even power.

The researchers told the same story. At the first glance there was no difference between Buffy and Kennedy, or between Faith and Rona, but there had been fights which had proven otherwise, as when Kennedy had been rude yet again to Faith and gotten her ass kicked. Or like now, with a crowd of Slayers moving aside from a person they had only heard of in their training and never before met. It was interesting, but mostly only to the Watchers. The Slayers functioned, they fought, and for the first time since the ancient times with its powerful magic the sides of good and evil actually felt balanced.

He watched as Buffy started shaking and then with a gasp of pain broke contact with the dead Slayer. He realized he had forgotten the dead girl's name and decided it was probably better not to mention that. Buffy was very adamant about respecting the dead, especially slayers.

She stood up, her eyes haunted, and said, "I know where the demons are at the moment."

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In another universe, deep within a mountain, a group of people – heroes of their own and many other worlds throughout their galaxy-- watched as two humans dressed in off-white walked out of their Stargate. "See, I could have told you they'd send Dad after the last fiasco," Jack commented.

Samantha Carter just smiled as the older but very healthy-looking man waved to her. "Sir," she said, directed at the General, "permission to greet the Tok'ra delegation."

"Granted," General Hammond agreed, attempting to sound formal but his smile betrayed him. She nodded, dashed down the metal stairs, and headed for the corridor. It had been a while since she had last seen her dad and as he was not easily reachable any longer she felt she had to use every moment available with him.

"Hey, Kiddo," he said as she rushed into his arms. She noted the slightly subdued tone of his voice. This wasn't a side-trip, she realized. This was a mission, and there wouldn't be much time for family. She felt a bit sad at that thought. She had been feeling really lonely lately but she was unsure as to why.

"So you want to see the general right away?" she asked as they were guided towards the outside traveler reception area, where the Tok'ra were checked and weighed, mostly to insure against accidental losses of equipment and the like.

"Yeah... I am sorry, Sam, but this is not good news. I have to see the general right away. We might need some of that SGC quick military action you're so fond of," he commented. She winced at the still prevalent tone of considering them too immature in their battle against the Goa'uld. It had been apparent in her father before, but never like this.

She must have made an expression, because he immediately looked apologetic and said, "Oh, no, it's not like that. It was an actual request. We... The Tok'ra need your help with something," he said.

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A half hour later, SG-1, Major Hayden the CO of SG-7, Major Webb the CO of SG-8, the general, her dad and the other Tok'ra sat around the conference table. "The Tok'ra, here, have come to ask for our help. They've discovered something very troubling. Jacob?" General Hammond nodded to her father.

"A recent Tok'ra operation allowed us to plant a device... a camera, if you will, at the base of the Brotherhood of Thoth. Teal'c, you may be familiar with them." Her father looked over at the ever-calm giant Jaffa.

Teal'c nodded, apparently glad to be asked, and said, "Indeed. The Brotherhood of Thoth is a group of minor Goa'uld led by descendants of Thoth, a very intelligent but long banished System Lord. The Brotherhood is very secretive and small. They have only a small retinue of Jaffa, because a force loyal to Ra drove them from their home world several decades ago. They are known, as was their father, as some of the best thinkers and technologists of the Goa'uld. Many believe that they were involved in his creation of the Deathglider. They're also fervent researchers into the possibility of making advanced human hosts, much like Nirrti."

Her dad nodded, "we had discounted them as being a priority for much more than silent assassinations until we heard a rumor from a recruiter that they suddenly had a lot of resources again. We investigated and discovered that not only are they attracting old followers of their father but they have somehow come into possession of a lot of valuable technology -- some of it definitely not of Goa'uld origin. Even worse, they've been trading a lot with Nirrti's remaining Jaffa and Apophis, which worries us even more. So when we heard that all three of the Brotherhood were gathered at their latest base, it took a great deal of careful manipulation, but we managed to sneak in the device I spoke of, carried by an unknowing Jaffa recently recruited. And here is what we received aboard our ship."

Her dad put a small device on the table which projected a 2D image into the space above the table, showing a movie. She rather wanted to take that little projector apart to see how it violated the physical laws as she understood them, but she knew she should rather focus on the images shown. Someone was walking through a series of corridors, it seemed. He saluted as he entered a large room. There were other Jaffa around him. They looked ready for something. He looked around a little. The room was large, with tables and slaves examining a great variety of items. Along the wall was a series of glass tanks filled with some sort of bluish liquid, each with some sort of large reddish glowing device in front.

Her dad reached forward as the images panned towards the centre of the room, where a familiar object stood. He pressed a stud on the projector and said, "I don't know what that is, but we recognized a lot of other things in the room. The tanks and devices we saw earlier are something called DNA resequencers, and the tanks are for the subjects that are modified by it. The resequencers are an old invention of another race, outlawed by Ra and the System Lords, and those look almost original. They've since been rumoured in the possession of Nirrti and were supposedly modified by her especially to work faster and without the tanks, although the successes have been very far between. We're not sure about this central device, but..."

"But we do, Dad. It's a Quantum Mirror. An access way to alternate realities. We found one once, but it had to be destroyed. If you touch it and it's active, you move to an alternate reality. A universe like this one, only different in some way. Theoretically, there is an infinite number of possibilities," she explained.

Her dad blinked once, then leaned his head down and allowed Selmak to speak. "I am afraid that clinches the matter. The Tok'ra Council have other reasons to want to stop the Brotherhood – mostly because of their very sudden increase in power and resources, as well as their apparent biological research. However, if it is as you call it a Quantum Mirror then we must ask... no, beg you to help us stop them. They could very well plunder defenseless worlds with impunity using that device," the symbiont declared.

"Err, but the Quantum Mirror doesn't move you in space like the Stargate, so at least they're limited to the world they're on. That is at least a small ray of light," Daniel explained.

Selmak gave him an unhappy stare. "It is not a ray of hope Dr. Jackson. The other reason Jacob and I came is simply out of decency. You see, the Brotherhood is hiding here on your world. In a modified cloaked Ha'tak mothership. It is an ancient vessel but highly modified. They're here in violation of the treaty but also because of it. They're hiding even from us, but there is a regular supply run of cloaked transport ships every few days coming from Kadara, a planet once under the dominion of Nirrti and now ruled by Apophis but not under any strict control. We can arrange for you to take control of one of these transports. We will give you an up-to-date map of the mothership. All we ask in return is that we get to keep the Ha'tak. Oh, and I guess we have to insist on having that mirror destroyed," it explained and lowered her father's head to let him speak.

Jack lunged up from his chair. "What! Give you the mothership. Damn it, we need that! We need it to protect ourselves," he yelled.

"I am sorry, Jack," her dad said, "but the Tok'ra need it too. We would have gone ourselves, but I insisted it should be you guys. It is here, after all."

"Jack, please," the general said and turned towards her dad, "Jack, Jacob informed me about the position of the ship earlier as well as the Tok'ra demand. This is why I asked you, Major Hayden and Major Webb here. I want you to take SG-1, SG-7 and SG-8 and go take that ship."

Her dad nodded, seemingly a bit pleased, while Jack looked like he had swallowed something really disgusting and muttered, "Great! Days aboard yet another bloody transport ship, just to get back here." Then he said aloud, "Yes, sir, we will get ready to move out immediately."

-------------------------------

"All right, everyone get ready. Before Michelle remembered only pain and strange lights she remembered being dragged into this building. I want you all to be prepared. The goons we are looking for can make themselves invisible and have some sort of magic mojo that will knock you out if it hits you a few times. So if you see anything flying towards you looking all blue and glowy, then duck," Buffy whispered.

They had spent all of the last day getting ready and gathering what people they could without weakening the different teams around the world or the defenses of the currently fortified Council HQ or the slayer school in Cleveland. Clustered around him were 8 Slayers from all over Southern Europe and France as well as their watchers, him and Buffy. They had hoped for some magical support -- maybe even Willow, but she was unreachable, away on some sort of astral quest looking for more clues on their enemies. He noticed the girls nodding at Buffy's suggestion, while glancing at the blueprint of the Parisian suburban mansion they were attacking.

"Get ready," Buffy said. "Go," she whispered and like a pack of lionesses the Slayers attacked as a single group. They rushed for the wall and leapt it without breaking their stride much. One of the girls ran along the wall, it seemed, and pushed open the heavy iron gate while the others headed for the building. Buffy was almost in front. He followed the other Watchers in, while fighting to remember the exact wording of the name of the very angry earth elemental he had bound to his service last night. There was no way he'd let any one of those metal-headed demons capture him and do to him what they had done to the slayers.

He headed for the house, but he couldn't keep running. Apparently all those field Watchers were in good shape, because they were already inside, when he -- wheezing and with a stinging throb in his side – made his way up the stairs. He hoped no one would laugh at him later.

Suddenly there was a loud whine and a flash. There were yells. Then with a desperate cry of fear one of those metal-heads flew out of a window two stories up, clutching some sort of weapon. He hammered into the ground nose first. There was a gruesome snap and his cry stopped. Scared but unwilling to run away again, Andrew peeked inside, seeing several of the Watchers dead... no... they were breathing... out cold on the cold marble floor. He slipped inside and saw down the long hall, through the door underneath the stairs leading up into a room filled with a raging battle. More of the creatures were fighting the Slayers but it looked like a strange battle. When a slayer went into hand-to-hand their victory seemed guaranteed here, but the demons -- no, rather, they looked like humans with ray-guns and Egyptian metallic fantasy costumes -- were superior in their range. He saw a slayer get hit by a beam and kneel to the floor in great pain. She slowly rose, then another beam hit, and she fell over onto her hands; then another, and she collapsed.

Then he saw her enter the scene in front of his eyes. Even here, amongst the other slayers, she stood out to him... maybe he had a little crush again. He hated when that happened. But still, Buffy in battle was notable. She took a guy's head off with her axe -- a non-magical, all-metal copy of the Scythe currently in the hands of Faith as she guarded the Cleveland hellmouth. She kicked another one so hard that he flew out of sight, and then it happened. She was separate, alone in front, when she got hit by one of those blue rays. She staggered and fell but got up and fought on; then they all turned their weapons towards her. One, two, three -- she was hit and went down, their second loss. He gasped as did all the slayers. He realized his mouth was calling for his elemental. Then something big, round, and glowing flew towards where the remaining slayers had hidden, and a single word stopped his summoning: "Bomb!"

He vacillated for a second; then suddenly, he heard and saw it. The slayers applied the first rule of slaying: Don't die. One, he didn't know her, ran past him, then returned and literally dragged him behind her into cover, out of sight of the room. There was another massive white flash and that strange noise. They got out of hiding. The battle was looking like a loss, but he had an ace. He muttered the name of the elemental and felt its power approach. "Destroy my enemy," he intoned as he felt its presence. Suddenly, the building shook and trembled. There was a wail, then a snap.

He and the slayer left their cover, and he saw his elemental manifest and holding two dead metal-heads, their upper bodies crushed by its huge hands. It wandered in, shrugging off the bluish beams that barely took chunks out of its skin. The Slayer at his side dashed back into the battle as more of their enemy came down from upstairs.

From somewhere out of sight the few remaining of their enemy counterattacked. Reddish blasts -- this time from a staff -- hammered large pieces off the elemental, while two of the enemies, carrying Buffy and another downed slayer body, dashed for a freaky grey mirror that stood up against the back wall. They disappeared. The elemental in its rage hammered its hand through it as they slipped away, when there was a even louder noise from their enemies' corner. He was hit by something that felt almost like a wall and passed out.

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It was a good while later, when someone shook him awake. "Andrew, wake up, dumbass," a voice said coldly.

He opened his eyes and saw he was in some sort of hospital room. He was surrounded by glowering faces. Faces worn by Xander Harris and, worst of all, Rupert Giles.

"I see you survived again," Xander commented coldly.

"Uh, who died?" he asked.

Giles gave him a stare, then said, "You've been unconscious for two days. The part of the house you and the Slayers were in exploded, and you got hit by flying bricks. There were many casualties that day. But it seems at least the attack served its purpose."

He could clearly hear the seething anger beneath Giles' tone. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"It seems the device that was destroyed in the attack was the source of the invasion. Willow has verified that it was some sort of artifact that allowed passage between the dimensions. We've also learned that it was moved from place to place all around Earth and used as a travel device by the invaders," Giles explained, when Andrew suddenly remembered something. The images of Buffy getting pounded by the death rays of the demons and then later carried off by their enemy.

"Oh, god, Buffy," he stammered and started crying. It was a good while later when he realized only Xander was left in the room.

"You really cared," Xander whispered while he stared out the window.

"I've lived with her for two years now. She's family, somehow. I saw her die," he explained.

"We know how it happened. The Slayers who survived explained it all. They hadn't expected weaponry like that. Slayers are meant for hand-to-hand, not ranged combat. In fact, it seems the other side has taken to cheating," Xander said from his position.

"Oh, poor Dawn," he said to himself. He was equally close with the lanky girl.

"Andrew, do you know what happened to her body? The explosion wasn't strong enough to evaporate bodies, but there are two missing. Buffy and Irene, the Austrian Slayer," Xander asked.

"No..." he thought for a moment, then realized something. "I did see those guys run for the portal thing with them slung over their shoulders. Maybe they took the bodies... Maybe they aren't dead," he said and felt a wonderful shimmer of hope appear on the horizon.

"Doesn't matter, Willow and the entire Coven have been over the site all night. They have no trace or energy signature of the dimension they'd have to reach, and the device is really not helping. So even if they didn't make off with corpses, we can't reach them," Xander explained, sounding utterly desolate.

"Are we going to give up on them?" he asked.

Xander showed him a face with sorrow etched across it and said in a cold voice, "We've consulted with our seers; they all say the same. According to all oracles and the powers themselves, Buffy and Irene are forever beyond us and we should let them rest in peace this time."

"Oh," Andrew whispered. Maybe it was time for her to rest in heaven again. He hoped he would one day get to see her there, at least, if he kept making amends.

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"Are we there yet?" Jack said in his best child-voice, causing the usually so unflappable Teal'c to give him a withering stare. Maybe because Jack had been repeating that sentence as a joke for almost the entire ride.

She had rather enjoyed the trip, to be honest. Spending time with her dad, just talking about life -- especially life amongst the stars -- and finally getting Selmak to promise that they both wanted to show up for Christmas at Mark's place in San Diego later in the year. She had an idea about what was wrong with her lately, while talking about life, duty and career with her father during his turns at the wheel. She often felt lonely, and she had no love in her life except for her family and workmates. Maybe she needed someone all of her own to love, and her feelings for Jack were the reason why she hadn't done anything in the dating scene since arriving at the SGC. She was at a loss about how to reconcile all the parts of her professional life with a home life, though.

"All right, all right," Jack said, when he realized what Teal'c's look meant, and walked back towards the crowded cargo room, where they were gathering their weapons. Earth was in sight and in a few minutes they'd be able to land on the Ha'tak, which according to her dad, currently seated a few feet from her, was barely manned with as many Jaffa as they had brought men. Still, they were planning to be as stealthy as possible. They didn't want the Goa'uld to self-destruct or de-cloak the mothership when they had learned it was in orbit barely 20 kilometers over Paris.

"Everything ready?" Jack asked her.

"Yes, sir," she replied and took out the protective glasses. They were only carrying weapons, ammo and demo for their task. They didn't plan on any kind of stay. She heard Teal'c speaking in Goa'uld for a while; then he rose and walked into the room. "There seems to have been a change of plans. The Ha'tak has moved to a high orbit and has just relayed us the new location," he explained.

Jack nodded, "Let's hope it has nothing to do with us." He didn't seem convinced, though, and added another grenade to his vest. She rose, swept her hair back and put on her cap, then slipped on her glasses. Everyone huddled around the airlock and waited, while Teal'c piloted them in.

They set down, and she watched as the dock pressurized. They could see the two guards at the door looking expectantly at the transport. "Get ready," Jack commented and pushed the open switch. The outer door slid open. The two guards barely saw their weapons before two of the SG-7 guys put silenced slugs in their faces. They dropped with a minimum of noise made.

"All right, move out according to plan. SG-1 takes the mirror chamber. SG-7, you're on the barracks deck; SG-8, you're on the engineering section. Jacob and Rafe will be taking the bridge. Secure all room before moving on people," he said as Teal'c joined them, his staff in hand.

They headed out down the empty corridor. Quickly they followed the map given to them by her father and memorized by them all. Daniel looked uncomfortable, but then again missions like these were a bit too bloody for him in general. She hefted her assault rifle and headed out in front. A stray thought in her mind reminded her that she originally hadn't liked the fighting much either. She had joined the Air Force to get a chance at going up into space and do serious science.

A few minutes later and it was clear what her dad had meant by undermanned. They had met one Jaffa guard and two slaves so far. Both slaves were locked away, but the guard had died in combat. The ship showed clear signs of neglect here and there, but there were also a few rooms filled with what was probably plunder from alternate Earths. They arrived at the central chamber entrance. The door was open and the activity inside clearly audible. A firefight would be dicey.

"Bangs," Jack whispered. "Daniel, cover us," he said while drawing a flashbang from his belt. She did the same. They pulled the pins. Jack tossed first. She waited a moment then did the same. There was an enormous racket and flash, then another. They dashed inside and shot at everything that moved. There were several guards inside. One jumped up as she was firing in another direction. She could see him aiming at her and getting ready to fire, when he took a staff blast to the face from Teal'c.

She walked her fire, while crouching and trying to put down a hail of fire allowing the rest of her team to get to some sort of cover. Jack hid behind a console and started his own covering fire. He waved her forward just as she took down another Jaffa, his armor throwing sparks from the bullet rain.

She dashed forward, moving for cover while changing mags, as Jack opened up to cover her. A staff blast impacted next to her; she rolled backwards and ended up against one of the tanks and its control console. She fired a burst into the legs of a Jaffa charging towards her. He fell and slid forward. Daniel zapped him to unconsciousness with a zat.

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He saw one of his fellow Jaffa, enslaved in mind and body, aim to fire his staff at Jack O'Neill. Easily, he slid his staff slightly to the left and fired. The blast hit the warrior in the arm, destroying his aim. The warrior turned and ran for the Quantum Mirror, as the Tau'ri called it. He knew well the many and varied problems an escapee in another universe, especially a Jaffa, could cause there. With sadness over the loss of the beautiful but dangerous piece of history, he fired into the mirror, destroying it. The warrior slid to a stop and tried to turn and fire at him and his allies again. He chose to not give his enemy the chance. Teal'c watched his shot hit the Jaffa just as the warrior was facing him, making him glad that he had not been forced to shoot his enemy in the back.

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She looked around, seeing a group huddled around a figure behind a tipped-over table. She quickly scrambled to her feet, took a frag grenade from her vest, pulled the pin and tossed it behind the group. The ensuing explosion tore into the group like a murderous storm, and a single figure staggered out, wounded but alive inside his force field.

A Goa'uld, she guessed. She remembered Jack's instructions about what to do with shields like that. She took another grenade out, pulled the pin and ran forward with her rifle firing randomly towards the shield. As she got really close, she released the grenade and let it roll quickly along the floor into the shield, while tossing herself the other way. There was another flash, but the boom was muffled. She turned and looked up just as a zat fired somewhere to the left of her. The Goa'uld was very dead. There was another zat shot, then the room fell silent.

"Everything okay, Carter?" Jack asked, as she got back up from the floor again and leaned against the tank behind her, exhausted and well aware she had just turned a guy into very small bits. She nodded.

"That was an interesting method, Major Carter," Teal'c commented with a look towards the burned spot surrounded by Goa'uld host pieces. Daniel was looking at the gathered artifacts, which seemed to include a strange-looking axe.

Jack pressed his radio on and asked, "Can I get a sitrep?"

"SG-7, engineering decks cleared. Met minor resistance, sir. A goa'uld with a small retinue was doing something on a computer of some sort," Major Hayden reported.

"SG-8 sweeping the last upper decks, sir. Minor resistance by the slaves, but we have confined them," Major Webb said.

"Jack, we have the bridge," her dad said. She walked over and examined the mirror, smoldering as it was from a staff blast probably suffered during the battle. It looked completely fried.

"Alright, people, we have at least one snake unaccounted for," Jack said over the radio, then looked around.

"Uh, Jack," Daniel said with some urgency. He stood with one of the Goa'uld text pads in his hands.

"Yes, Daniel?" Jack asked, sounding a bit bored, almost like he was preparing for some long boring sentence.

"This is a research diary, of a sort. It seems one of the Brotherhood -- or all of them, maybe -- found that device a few years ago. After a lot of testing they set out for Earth, hoping to capture slaves and information with their cloaked ship, as well as looking for subjects for their research into making Hok'taur... super hosts. It was as a continuation of their father's research. Their subjects all died. They thought they found a solution on another Earth. Some sort of superior human subjects perfect for experimentation, but so far even with them they haven't had much luck," Daniel said and looked up.

"Jack, they have two subjects here right now," he said.

They all looked around. The DNA resequencers were all powered down. "Not in here, it seems," Jack said.

"Teams of two. Carter, Teal'c, you go down the hall outside and head down through the decks. Me and Daniel will go up. And be careful: we have at least one more snake on the loose," Jack commanded.

She quickly ran to the door, and after a careful look around headed out after Teal'c, her P-90 at the ready.

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They had searched two decks already. They both heard screaming before they saw anything. "No, get it out, get it out!" It was a high-pitched female voice.

Several orders were barked out in Goa'uld by a Goa'uld. She looked up at Teal'c. "He said 'hold her steady.' Then he called for another Jaffa to help," he whispered.

"If there is a hostage, we have to be careful going in," she replied.

There was another angry exchange in Goa'uld as she tried to figure how to get into the room. Teal'c drew in breath. "What?" she asked.

"They were putting a Goa'uld larva in someone. The false god just learned that it died inside the host. He is very angry," Teal'c explained when they heard the discharge of a hand device and a scream. The screams of a little girl.

She got up and charged. She tried to be as careful as possible, and so as she entered the room she saw two groups on either side of a table. She opened fire while advancing, wanting to keep them all off-balance. Several slaves and a Jaffa went down. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Her bullets hammered across a Goa'uld shield.

A tiny figure on the table tore itself loose.

Her P-90 emptied its clip.

A Jaffa lowered his staff to fire.

Then Teal'c began shooting his staff at the Jaffa.

She grabbed the tiny figure. Which turned out to be a pale little girl of maybe nine. Teal'c kept the Goa'uld and his -- by now, tiny – retinue hidden behind the shield. She was about to drag the girl towards Teal'c, still positioned at the door, when the Goa'uld yelled a command.

His two remaining Jaffa stepped forward out of his shield, firing at Teal'c.

She managed to jump forward, but not in time. The Goa'uld had unleashed his hand device on her. She felt the wave of force slam into her and send her flying along with her precious cargo. She twisted hoping to protect her precious cargo.

"Major Carter!," Teal'c yelled, but he couldn't get to her unless he wanted to get shot.

She saw the elderly looking man walk over in his robe and take the girl from her numb hands. She saw the girl with her hazel eyes pleading for help as they stared into hers. The Goa'uld turned and ran for a wall. He pressed a button and revealed a secret passage.

She fought to her feet, while fighting to make her fingers obey as they struggled to snap another clip into place on her rifle. Teal'c felled one of the Jaffa. She fired off a few distracting shots, making sure none of the slaves bothered him or her as she sent them cowering to the floor.

She rushed for the formerly secret door. Slowly, at first, but she managed to pick up speed as time passed and she went through the long shadowy passage. The Goa'uld had a headstart but she could still hear him as he dragged his still resisting captive away, yelling things in angry Goa'uld along the way.

She passed through another formerly secret door, into one of the Ha'tak's great number of hangars. It held a large vessel, bigger than a Goa'uld Tel'tak transport and better armed it seemed. It barely fit in the room. The Goa'uld was heading for it, clearly not willing to either wait for his brothers or try to retake his ship.

She ran after, mentally reviewing what she knew about Goa'uld doors.

The airlock door of the ship closed behind the Goa'uld. She followed, hoping the door wasn't locked. She tested the button. "Saved by Goa'uld arrogance," she thought.

The engines of the ship started as she put her foot inside. "Samantha Carter!" she heard Teal'c yell behind her as he entered the room. The door started automatically closing on launch. She barely managed to throw herself inside before it shut completely. Teal'c looked upset as he watched the ship take off from several meters away.

"Uh, not good," she thought, hoping that she could remember enough from the Deathgliders and transport ship to finagle control of the ship when she got that Goa'uld down. She edged over to the inner door and glanced inside, through the room beyond. Differently than a transport, this led into what looked like crew quarters with a few bunks. The girl from earlier was lying -- pale and breathing heavily-- on one. She guessed the cockpit was further out in front.

She pressed the inner door stud and edged inside, trying to make as little noise as possible. She carefully walked forward, keeping her rifle ready.

She could see the apparently single-seated cockpit. It was empty. She walked forward, seeing the stars and Earth through the cockpit. They were already free of the Ha'tak. Suddenly a weight hammered into her from above. She was pinned face down against the floor.

"Tau'ri, you will be my first vengeance for your kind sullying our family vessel with your presence," the Goa'uld yelled. She tried twisting around but she couldn't.

Suddenly the weight lifted a little. The Goa'uld moved her forward and turned her over. He did, however, keep a hand on her rifle. She tried wrenching it free but was unable to do so. The Goa'uld let go with his other hand. The left one. The one with the hand device on. She let her hands slump to her sides.

The ship made a noise. She saw blue surrounding the ship through the windshield and felt the acceleration. It had jumped to hyperspeed, probably on autopilot. She was getting deeper in trouble by the minute. The hand device flashed.

Her world was excruciating pain. Everything seemed to be red. Her head felt like it was bursting. Her hand closed around her boot-mounted knife. She pulled it out and hammered it upwards, blindly but with all her strength.

The pain ended. She fell back, unable to move. Her head throbbed; all she could do was look as the Goa'uld gurgled with her knife run up through his throat into his neck. Only the hilt was visible. The Goa'uld lifted its hand towards her.

Fighting to find the strength, she managed to toss herself to the right. The pulse of energy still flung her along the floor, slamming her into a wall for the second time today. She nearly blacked out.

The Goa'uld crawled towards her, intent etched all over its face. It was probably seeking a host that would live. She fought against the strap of her sidearm holster. The Goa'uld was close. The figure reared up, and she thought she saw something moving in his mouth.

The gun came up. She fired. Again and again, she fired the 9mm straight into the face of the host and the Goa'uld peeking from his lips. It never managed to leave him. She kept firing, unable to stop before she ran out. The automatic froze, its clip empty. She rolled up to sit, suddenly aware of a throbbing pain in her leg. She felt up and down it. It wasn't broken, but badly sprained.

She forced herself to hobble over to the control console, planning to slip them out of hyperspace, turn around and head for Earth. What she found was depressing. The console was crushed. It didn't look repairable. She considered she had some knowledge of Goa'uld engines and technology, but not enough to either repair these consoles or manipulate the engines to do much other than stop them dead, which would only strand them.

"Uhhh," she heard from back in the crew area. She hobbled back there, finding the pale girl throwing up.

"I feel sick," the girl reported, and threw up for what looked to be the second time. She considered what Teal'c had told her. It seemed that this girl had somehow rejected a Goa'uld larva. If that was true, then it made sense she was sick. If it wasn't, then she had to be really careful. She would have to find out somehow. The girl was maybe nine, had blond hair although it came from a bottle of chemicals from the look of the darker hair roots. She looked really thin for her age. Sam felt sorry that this kid had gotten involved in their world. But hopefully, soon they'd both be back home safely.

First, though, she wanted to make absolutely sure she was rid of the other Goa'uld. She went slowly back to the cockpit and started dragging the corpse away. After, she promised herself she would take stock of the ship and look it over from top to bottom.

-------------------------------

"Teal'c, you mean to say that Carter went aboard a Goa'uld ship alone to go after some Goa'uld?" he had to ask again, not believing his 2IC would do something so reckless.

"Yes, O'Neill; however, I do believe she was motivated to capture the Goa'uld, before he could get away with his captive. A small girl he obviously intended to insert a Goa'uld into," Teal'c explained.

"About that, Jack, we found only one other aboard who wasn't a Jaffa. A woman in a sarcophagus, barely being kept alive by its circuitry. We tried to remove her from that infernal device, but it seems something is killing her, so we had to leave her in it until we can get her to our doctors," Jacob explained.

"Jacob, aren't you worried about Sam?" Daniel asked, a bit surprised.

Jacob stared at them for a moment. "Daniel, of course I am upset. I am worried. I am her father... But I checked. The Al'kesh cloaked long before it went to hyperspeed I... and all this ship's sensors have no idea where she went. I hope to find her again or that she returns with it unscathed. But this Ha'tak can't stay here, either. If the Asgard detect it, they might cancel your treaty or even worse, it may make the System Lords think they have been beaten to the punch, and then even more will show up. I can't run off in a thousand directions, half-cocked, without some sort of clue," Jacob explained, looking pained.

"We'll send out feelers to our allies and spies amongst the Jaffa to see if they've heard from her," he said. Teal'c nodded resolutely.

"And the Tok'ra will do the same. We suggest you notify the Tollan, too. Once Samantha's SG-1 IDC runs out she might try to contact you through them or one of your other allies," Selmak replied for Jacob.

"Selmak?" Daniel asked, a bit surprised at the Tok'ra's sudden takeover.

"Jacob has been greatly disturbed as the implications of his daughter's disappearance become clear to him. He asked me to take control while he regains his calm. I can promise you, however, that the Tok'ra will do their utmost to find her. We feel a strong connection to her," Selmak explained.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: 

She looked at the water in her bowl again and smiled at her reflection. Her hair was sweaty and kind of stiff-looking, which was rather natural given that she hadn't had a bath in nearly 2 days. She took a sip and looked over at the sweat-bathed kid in the opposite bunk.

The girl had been out cold most of the last few days. She had a severe fever and, after vomiting for a while, she had not done much more than lay still in pain. It worried Sam more than a little. She knew that when a Goa'uld died it released a poison into the host, killing it. But this girl seemed to be fighting off even that, albeit slowly. She walked over, her limp almost gone, and propped the girl up. She carefully poured water down the girl's throat, a ritual she was repeating almost every ten minutes, as she had every waking hour since their trip began. The girl hadn't needed to go to the bathroom yet, thankfully.

Sam put her down again. It was strange having to care for such a fragile creature as a little girl when she was barely able to care for herself. Still, their needs kept her going. She looked around the ship. They had dried food and water for at least another week without rationing, and maybe two with. They had a ship which was working, although she had no control over it. She had a load of weapons, as the ship turned out to be heavily armed. The Goa'uld had attacked her from the gunner's seat, hoisted as it was above the pilot seat. It even had a cargo space with different devices and materials -- possibly more plunder from other realities.

She looked back at the girl. With the lack of any entropic cascade effects, it seemed she was unique in their universe, but that was a small comfort given that the poor girl was now stranded. Still, it was a problem for a day when the girl wasn't dying of fever.

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"Excuse me, Miss?" a raspy but young voice asked, startling her from her sleep. She flew up and nearly hit her head on the bunk above hers.

She turned and looked at the blond girl, who was looking at her with her pale lips in a line. "You're awake," Sam stated and padded over to the girl's bedside in her underwear.

"Obviously," the girl replied, indicating a rather wry sense of humor. The girl frowned and said, "I'm sorry for waking you, but where am I?... And, uh, where is the bathroom?"

Sam smiled, "no problem. It's this way. Here, I'll support you." She guided the girl to the tiny cabinet that served as their toilet.

A little while later she guided the girl back to bed. The kid was clearly as weak as a kitten. "Here, you need to get more liquids in your system. And you need to eat, as well. You've been very sick," she said and offered the girl some water and food, which the girl accepted, sitting atop her covers for a while.

She studied the girl sitting in her dress -- a Goa'uld slave-style dress, beautiful but not that practical. The girl ate for a while, then looked up with fear in her eyes. "The man, he... they... did something to me... and they..."

"Shh, shh, slowly. They won't hurt you anymore. He is gone for good," she replied.

The girl visibly relaxed but the fear didn't seem to fade entirely. "What is it?" she asked.

"I think I am not home any more. My head is all fuzzy. I remember things, but they don't make sense. They don't fit together. I feel strange. I remember some sort of fight. They hurt me... The men with the metal heads, they hurt me and they took me. I was in some sort of glowing blue water and I could breathe in it, but it wasn't fun. It hurt all over and it kept hurting. They pulled me out and dragged me to a room. It was so cold, and I was so scared. They put this thing... A slug on me. It burned and it bit me. Goddess, it went into me and I felt it. It was so evil. I hated it. But then, as it called me names and said I was its slave forever, I killed it... In my head, I fought it and it died. Then it hurt more and more," the girl was crying. Sam went over and hugged her for comfort, not knowing what else to do.

The girl continued, seeming to find comfort in spite of Sam's lack of experience with children, "Then you came and you fought them. You're very brave. Then the man with the monster's voice, he took me here, and you came here as well. But I don't know what happened after... Where is here?" the girl looked around in confusion.

"I took care of the evil man... This is a spaceship and, well, it is on autopilot right now. He left it like this, and I can't turn us around right now. But I will. I have been to space many times and I know that I'll be able to get us home to Earth," she said, deciding not to tell her that it wouldn't be the girl's Earth just yet.

"A spaceship? Get out!" the girl said in disbelief.

She smiled and lifted the girl into her arms. "Look, we're in hyperspace right now, traveling faster than light," she explained.

"Hy-per-space... Oh wait, I remember I saw something like that on TV once," the girl said while studying the blue display going on outside the glass.

Sam smirked but said nothing: right or not, if it made sense to the girl, why deride her?

The girl looked up at her and asked, "Uhm, what is your name?"

"My name is Samantha Carter, and you?" she replied.

"My name is Buffy Anne Summers," the girl answered.

"Buffy? Really?" she asked, wondering why a mom would name her girl that.

"Yeah, my mom had a sister who was named Elizabeth, but she died. She had always been nicknamed Buffy, so my mom decided I should be named that because she loved her almost as much as she loved me. Anne was some sort of fallback my dad insisted on, but I never use it, and Summers is my dad's family name," Buffy replied.

Sam winced, knowing that the conversation where she'd have to explain to this little sweetheart with her Californian accent that she could never see her mom again would one day soon arrive. "Aren't you freaked out by this space thing?" she asked.

Buffy studied her for a moment, then said, "No... I... don't know why. I should be freaked, right? But I feel like I trust you. I don't mind, as long as you don't. And, well, I think... maybe I am hard to freak."

She wondered about that statement for a while, then yawned. "I guess I am a little tired," Sam admitted.

"Me too," Buffy agreed and lay down on top of her covers this time.

"Pull those covers over yourself. I don't want you to catch a cold," she commanded.

Buffy blinked looked a bit sheepish, then crawled under the covers without a word. Soon after, they were both fast asleep.

-------------------------------

"Damn it, General, I am just saying that we should at least let Teal'c try it," he argued, even if the look in George's eyes told him it was a fool's errand.

"No, Colonel, and that is final. We all know that now that Apophis has regained full control of Chu'lak any visit by Teal'c there would be downright suicidal." His commanding officer paused, then said, "Listen, Colonel. I know you want to see if Bra'tac and Teal'c can find out anything about Major Carter. I am worried about her too, but there has been no sighting of her from any of our allies, nor have the Tok'ra heard anything about any Goa'uld capturing her. I have known Samantha Carter for years, and I know how she works. She won't go down easily, Jack. In no time, she'll be back here. After all, this isn't the first time something like this has happened."

He sank back in his chair feeling defeated yet again. It had been four days already. He just had the sure feeling that, if Carter had kicked that Goa'uld's butt, then she would be back on Earth, either in the ship or through the gate, by now. And that meant she had lost. That could lead to consequences that he didn't really dare contemplate.

"Thank you, sir, I will relay your orders to my team," he said and got up, wandering off in search of the solace of his other friends.

He found them both sitting quietly in Daniel's office. Daniel was attempting to look like he was working, and Teal'c was staring into space. Teal'c looked hopeful as he entered. The big Jaffa had taken the disappearance of Carter as a personal failure and was actually the source of the dangerous plan of going to Chu'lak to capture either a ship or information about Sam. "What did General Hammond say, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

"He said no, just as I expected. He says it's a suicide mission, and that it is still too early for one of those," he replied grimly. Daniel looked up, a short flash of anger disappearing from his face as he thought things through.

"Then we shall wait a little while longer... But not a lot," Teal'c said with finality.

-------------------------------

"Sam, the noise is changing," Buffy observed. Sam was amazed at how the girl had gone from sick to healthy in less than a day since waking up. Buffy was still easy to tire out, but even that seemed to be fading. She was sitting in the pilot seat, grimacing over the fact that she still had sensors and a HUD but no controls.

"Yeah, we're arriving," she replied as, with a roar, they hammered from hyperspace into orbit over a planet some where in the galaxy -- although she realized, given her knowledge of hyperspace and Goa'uld drives, in particular, she could calculate approximately how far from Earth they were. She started doing the math in her head, hoping to avoid the thought that they might be anything from caught in orbit to heading for a crash, all depending on the autopilot and course laid in.

The ship's sub-light engines powered up and rather quickly took them out of orbit, heading for the planet. She looked at it, momentarily forgetting her calculations. It was a bit further from its sun than Earth and had even less landmass, most of that looking rather mountainous. There were belts of green, but most of it looked glacially white. "This could get cold," she thought.

"Wow," Buffy marveled and scooted into her lap trying to get a good view. She briefly considered whether it made sense for them to use the lifepods. The descent looked planned, however, which meant that they were probably landing on autopilot. They entered the atmosphere and the ship rattled slightly, causing Buffy to take hold of her. She held the girl in one arm and mentally rehearsed the path to the life pods.

The ship slowed on its own and corrected its course several times, making her feel a bit more assured about their safety. Buffy seemed to sense her mood and visibly relaxed. "I'm sorry for being clingy," the girl apologized.

"You don't have to apologize for that. It is better to allow your emotions out than to hide them," she replied, while watching the ship head for the southern tip of a continent not far from the icy glaciers that covered the world's poles. This was probably going to be really cold.

They flew towards a damaged-looking stone tower, very different from the pyramids and Egyptian-inspired structures favoured by the Goa'uld. A gate slid open. As they approached she saw a problem. The gate was not opening fully. "Hold on," she yelled and grabbed Buffy. There was a thunderous noise and she was flung forward, slamming into the windshield, then back into the seat. Buffy had flown from her hands on the way, but that was just her final concern as she slowly lost her grip on consciousness.

-------------------------------

"Sam," a frantic voice begged. She felt a moist cloth wiping her brow. "Sam, please wake up," Buffy's voice implored her again. She opened her eyes to find Buffy, with a gash on her forehead and her arm at an odd angle, wiping her brow.

"Are you alright?" she asked, indicating the arm.

"No, my shoulder feels funny and it hurts," Buffy reported, and to her surprise neither cried nor even sniffled. She realized from the marks on the girl's face that she had woken too late for that part.

"You're very brave, Buffy. Now we have to get ourselves and my gear together. We can't stay aboard this ship," she suggested, fearing any sort of volatile leaks. She hoped that this world had a Stargate within easy reach of the base they had just landed on.

"Ok, I'll help. Damn my arm," Buffy complained, and hammered her shoulder against the chair. With a ghastly pop it settled back into place. Sam winced, then realized something.

"How did you know to do that? Why even?" she asked.

Buffy looked at her with confusion. "I just remembered. I think I have seen it done or done it myself before... I'm not sure... But it hurts less now," the girl reported, sounding as confused about the whole thing as Sam was. She wrote it off as stemming from the girl's life in the other dimension. It sounded more and more like a harsh place.

She tried to rise and, thankfully, didn't feel concussed. She had feared another one of those. She ached all over, but that was probably just bruises. It looked like they had been very lucky. Together they staggered out into the crew quarters, where she packed a bundle of their remaining food and slung her reloaded rifle over her shoulder. Buffy carried one of their water jugs in her good arm after wrapping herself in a blanket.

She considered her own T-shirt-clad torso and copied Buffy before they headed to the airlock. Breathing the outside air was a relief, aside from the near-freezing temperatures. Their breath steamed. She glanced over the damage to their ship. Its top was hardest hit -- fortunately, as its volatile weapons array was mounted on the underside.

She spotted the doors leading inside. She wandered over and pressed the glowing access button. The door slid open, revealing an equally cold interior. She felt her hopes dwindle. She had hoped for a warm, cozy base without Jaffa, within walking distance of a Stargate. That had obviously been too much to hope for. Of course, the rest might still come true.

"Come on," she said and held out a hand, in which Buffy lay her bad arm.

"This is like Star Trek," Buffy commented.

She couldn't help laughing. "Buffy, if you ever meet my commanding officer, I think you'll become thick as thieves in no time," she commented.

"Why? Wouldn't thieves be better thieves if they're thin?" Buffy replied, but with a smile that indicated she was joking... and smart.

"Probably," she agreed.

"Do you know where we are?" Buffy asked, as they walked down the cold and slightly windy corridor.

"I have no idea," she replied, before remembering again that Buffy was a child very far from home. Buffy looked absolutely desolate and scared, but she didn't say anything. Her grip on Sam's hand grew a bit tighter, though.

They found an elevator, which was useless when she had no idea where to go or how to read the symbols on the buttons. She stopped and looked at the buttons again. The Goa'uld language symbols weren't a part of the design. They had been added as a kind of plastic cover. That was strange. Several of the buttons were also covered by hard plastic protection, as if they weren't meant to be pushed.

She decided to start from the top.

-------------------------------

They had heat on two floors. One was some sort of storage level, now emptied out, but which had obviously contained something precious, given the shields and armour surrounding it. The other was a basement level that had once been some sort of living quarters and food growth area. She was unsure if the wild-looking plants growing in the hydroponics there were edible, but she had hope. She was sure of a few other things now, as well. This wasn't originally a Goa'uld facility, but she believed it had belonged instead to the Ancients, one of the four powerful races the Asgard mentioned. She recognized a few of the letters from the texts they had found here and there over the years.

The tower had also clearly been picked clean of anything useful years ago, probably by the Brotherhood. The heated storage area had contained the meager leftovers of some sort of camp. Still, with the water and food supply in the basement quarters they were at least supplied. What they lacked was proper bedding, cold weather clothing, and a Stargate.

"Sam, look," Buffy said, and pointed out yet another one of the mysterious rips in the base's outer plating. She looked outside, through the rough opening, and saw what she had hoped for: a Stargate, complete with DHD. She leaned carefully forward through the hole in the wall and looked at the exterior of the building for the first time.

The base was very tall and covered in a smooth, bluish-white coating. It was also mounted atop the peak of a mountain. The Stargate stood on a whole other mountain that looked to be covered in sheer cliffs. There had once been a bridge from the tower to a path leading up to the gate, but there was only a few feet of the structure left at either end to indicate its long-ago presence. There was maybe 20 meters of empty space between the tower and the path. She hadn't noticed any doors, except the one leading outside on the floor above the basement. A door which she had promptly closed again, after only moment outside had chilled both of them to the point of shivering.

"That is the Stargate: if I can get to that I can get us home," she promised.

Buffy peeked outside. "I don't think I can jump that far," Buffy pointed out.

"Me neither. We'll have to construct a bridge, or climb the other mountain," she looked down again, trying to see if there was some path from their mountain to the gate, but she could not even see a connection between the two peaks as they disappeared below into the clouds that surrounded them.

"And I think climbing is out," she said, after Buffy gave her second suggestion a disbelieving look.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed.

"I think we have to see what is on the levels that have blocked buttons," she suggested, hoping to put off any decisions, just for a while.

-------------------------------

She pushed the button. She had just spent ten minutes prying off the plastic covers of all the blocked buttons with her knife. Now she wanted to see why... She knew very well that there might be terrible things behind the door when it opened, but she felt they had to take the chance.

The elevator hummed regularly, then stopped after going up for a while. Suddenly there was a blue flash, and she felt a tingle all over. The door stood in front of them. It looked scratched and burnt. "Maybe the Goa'uld weren't allowed in and couldn't break the doors open without risking more damage to this place," she thought, and pushed the 'open door' button.

It slid open slowly, with a rasp that betrayed how damaged it was. Inside there was still heating, as well. She stopped and looked around. It was a simple room: walls with thick glass windows overlooking the world, and thick blue pillars surrounding a single chair. There was a low hum in the room, along with a feeling of power. She walked into the room and realized there had be something behind the elevator, as well. Buffy followed meekly behind.

She rounded the elevator pillar and found a small area apparently meant as an office of some sort. There was nothing on the table. However a chair remained behind from what ever furniture had once stood in the room. It looked strange, with a clear gel for backrest and seat. It faced another huge window with a large crack in it, as well as a commanding view of the Stargate.

This had to be the control post of the tower. She sat in the chair, but nothing happened. She rose and walked back around to the other chair in the main room. She sat in it, but again nothing happened. "Buffy, you try," she said, while walking around examining the floor and pillars, looking for some sort of control to turn it on. Buffy sat in the chair she had hoped was apart of some control mechanism, but still nothing happened.

"Alright, this is a wash; let's try the other floors," she suggested, thanking her stars that Buffy wasn't a difficult girl. She seemed to accept their search with a patience that surprised her. Or maybe it wasn't patience, but rather an understanding of priorities, she mused, as they re-entered the elevator.

-------------------------------

They had found two more abandoned floors, with room after room of quarters. Thankfully, they had made a few finds in those. Loads and loads of both practical and non-practical clothes for human-shaped people. There were huge rooms clearly meant for meetings and communal activities, but nothing that looked like food. That actually didn't surprise her, given the apparent age of everything. What had surprised her was the small collection of devices which she had added to her bundle. They looked like Goa'uld hand devices, although made in a silver metal that reminded her of Trinium. She had not been able to test them yet, but she guessed it would give her something to do in the late hours of the night or when she was bored.

Now they were heading for the next floor. She knew she was approaching the floor with the door to the ruined bridge to the Stargate. The elevator stopped, and the blue flash was repeated. She had to fight to get this door open, so battered was it. Buffy stepped up and her additional pushing seemed to actually help. They walked together into what could only be called a sort of laboratory. It had tanks and consoles that looked a lot like the ones she had seen in the Ha'tak. There was also a super-high-tech version of an electronic engineering bench, or whatever the Ancients called their technology. It came complete with sensors and devices that could probably occupy her for years. There were even what looked like parts of a Stargate dial stacked against a wall. And that was just the first room.

She felt like a giddy child as they finished their walk-through of what was probably a sort of technology workshop meant for repair as well as research. She had seen things that, more than ever, convinced her that many of the Goa'uld devices were bad approximations of Ancient technology. She had at least recognized what looked like the predecessor of the Ring transports, the Hand Device, the Healing Device, and even the crystal-based technology of the DHD and Goa'uld hyperdrives.

"Sam, I'm tired; are we done yet?" Buffy asked.

"Almost. I just want to open that door and see the Stargate from here," she said, and activated the door button. The door slid open and revealed a small, open area that led towards where there had once been a bridge. The wind immediately seemed to drain the room of heat. She literally felt the temperature drop. She guessed it was about 1 or 2 degrees Celsius outside, and the air contained a bit of sleet. Shivering, she went back inside, closing the door behind her.

"Alright, let's head to the basement and set up camp," she said. Just as she said that, there was a strange, almost musical noise from something on the wall next to her. Something reached out and grabbed her head.

She felt pain and saw flashes of light, then she was let go, to fall into the arms of a yelling Buffy. "Sam, are you alright?" she begged.

With a sinking feeling in her stomach she replied, "I hope so." She hoped it hadn't been a library download, as had happened to Jack before. There was no way to reach the Asgard, and if she died from it Buffy would be left to live out her days alone on this rock.

"Welcome, travelers," the black disk which had grabbed her said.

"T-T-This is the tower of Alrush Tal. We're currently under qua-qua... Sequence override Quarantine ended all occupants p-p-perished. Welcome-Welcome. Sequence initiate... Time... Protocol: Rebuild. Restarting... Welcome, travelers; this is the tower of Alrush Tal. As the first non-xenoform-infested d-descendants, it is an honor to welcome you. I... Full function damage. Damage restore... failed. This is an automatic protocol for addressing you. This one only has limited capacity. T-time and external sources have severely damaged it. Please a-all-allow me to make your stay as pleasant as possible. Guide function. Status examined. Currently available locations are main control, secondary storage, kitchens, level 2 residential area. It is suggested that you make yourselves welcome in the residential area and maybe enjoy a bit of our ex-excellent cuisine," a voice she could only consider as a combination of computer and intelligence suggested. She was guessing it had just learned her language by transferring it from her mind.

"Thank you," she replied.

Buffy was looking at it with big eyes, then whispered, "Is it evil?"

"No, it is just an old machine trying to be helpful. Now, let's go settle in," she said, but still headed for the kitchens.

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She had moved their remaining food and water, as well as the bedding from the Goa'uld ship, to the back chambers of the kitchen area. It was warm, silent and defensible. She sat cleaning her weapons, when Buffy said, "Sam."

"Yeah," she replied.

"Could we talk about something?" Buffy asked.

"What, is something wrong?" she asked, and looked up. Buffy looked tired but otherwise fine.

"No. It's just so silent. I... don't know what I should do," Buffy explained.

She couldn't help nodding. It was only natural that the little girl would be scared of the silence like that. She was far, far from home, with only a woman she barely knew for company. In a situation which she -- unlike Sam -- couldn't be trained to survive and with nothing to distract her. "I don't know what to say. I don't really spend much time with kids like you. The only kid I know is a bit older, and I usually play chess with her," she explained.

"Tell me about you, then," Buffy asked.

"Alright, but then tomorrow you have to tell me about you," she said, and took a breath. She wanted to start with what she did, but out of some sort of flash of insight or maybe secret need she instead started telling Buffy about her life from really early on.

-------------------------------

She woke up feeling almost sweaty. She had the ever-warm Buffy tucked against her. The girl had fallen asleep just as she had been telling about her pilot training, and she hadn't been long behind. She had never slept with a kid next to her before. She looked down at the rosy cheeks and totally relaxed face of the little girl and realized that the child trusted her. Not just a little, not like a friend. No, Buffy had given her complete and utter trust to her. It was a bit humbling.

She slowly detached herself from the girl, hoping to be able to lay her down and let her sleep on. But all Buffy did was flick open her eyes and stare at her before smiling warmly.

"Morning," Buffy whispered.

"You can keep sleeping. I'll try to see if the hydroponic plants are edible," she explained.

"Hydro-huh?" Buffy inquired.

"That means plants that grow in water. It is a fast and smart way to grow certain forms of food. We've been trying to do it properly for years back on Earth," she explained.

"You're weren't kidding," Buffy said.

"What do you mean?" she answered, while trying to ignore the intense smell of sweat on her own body.

"You said you were smart last night," Buffy replied.

"Oh, yeah, well I guess. I think I am a bit of a geek, but a lot of people are seemingly very sure that I am very smart. But that doesn't really mean much. There are very many forms of smart, Buffy. I have a friend who can't make heads or tails of a vector space equation, but he is also very, very smart. He can speak a whole lot of languages and keeps learning new ones just by reading about them. Another friend I have couldn't do either that or what I do, but he is so good at what he does that both me and my friend Daniel would do anything and go anywhere when he says so. Smart comes in all kinds," she concluded.

Buffy looked a little tired, then said, "Some people are just average, and some really aren't." She was astonished that the usually self-assured girl was suddenly so upset at their talk of intelligence. It was a bit like no-one had ever encouraged the girl or seen any kind of intelligence in her.

-------------------------------

"Sam, are we going to stay here?" Buffy asked, as she sat on the strangely comfortable chair overlooking the lab. Sam had taken care of the most important things and arranged for everything from food to drink, and she had even found a functional bathroom in the residential area. They had both bathed in the warm water after she had let it run for nearly an hour to clear out the plumbing and cycle as much new water in as possible. Still, she -- and apparently, Buffy as well -- felt much better and a bit more civilized when freshly bathed. If it wasn't for the distance from Earth, her family and friends, then she wouldn't have minded staying for a bit. But she had an idea about that.

"I am going to build a new bridge to the Stargate. It might take a little while, but then we can get home," she explained.

"I want to help," Buffy immediately stated.

"And you will. I won't be able to do it all on my own," she agreed, hoping to appease the girl. Her main concern was the need for some sort of building material. She had a rope and slide system already in her head, but she was going to need something to build the actual bridge with and a welding method.

She searched around the area near the entrance and found what looked like a plasma torch, but like all the other technology here it wouldn't even turn on when she touched it. "Damn it," she cursed, and kicked a metallic case away from herself.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked, startled out of her thoughts.

"This crap won't work! None of it will. Why? Why can't things just be simple?" she yelled. Then she noticed the rust on some of the metal. She looked around. She knew of several parts of the ship lying dormant in the hangar above that were made of an aluminum compound -- if it was built like a Tel'tak. She had an ignition source in her pocket, and there were a lot of levels upstairs filled with debris and doors no one was using which would make excellent building material. She realized she was looking at weeks of work, if not more, but there was no other way around it that she could see.

"Sam?" Buffy asked, clearly having noticed her thinking.

"I have an idea how we can do it, but it is the old-fashioned way and it'll take time loads of time," she replied.

"Time, we've got," Buffy agreed and demonstratively rolled up her sleeves.

"Planning first, work later," she admonished the girl. "You should always think before you do things. Rushing into things will just make them fail. Clever people like you and me, we think things through beforehand, or when things are to be done. Dumb people think things through after they've failed or been cheated," she explained. Buffy nodded gravely, as if she had said something important, and rolled her sleeves back down.

-------------------------------

The next days allowed them to develop a routine. They got up, she made breakfast out of water and plants, before they went about either scraping together rust or gathering and grinding aluminium. Then they'd bathe, eat their evening meal, and she'd lull Buffy to sleep -- with stories, at first, but when those ran out she just tried to remember her own junior high school education and teach by explanation. A few times they sang: although neither of them had a strong voice, it felt good, and they soon took it up while working, as well. And every morning, she woke up with a little blond tyke tight against her and found herself minding it less and less.

At first she had just had Buffy around during her construction work to keep her company, but it quickly became glaringly apparent that Buffy was superhumanly strong. Buffy could lift even more than she could. The girl could even work both faster and longer than herself. They talked about it, but the best Buffy could explain it was that she hadn't been strong before leaving home, although she was unsure because she felt like she had forgotten a great deal. One thing she was apparently sure of was that her mother was dead and her father was apparently someone she didn't know or remember as much more than a kind face. She had accepted that.

Buffy in a way reminded her of Cassie. They had formed a bond a bit unlike the one she had with Cassie -- mostly because as the weeks wore on she got to know the tiny girl even better than she had ever really known Cassie. She loved Cassie, but they were friends. With Buffy it was starting to feel like family, and in a strange way that was both scary and enticing.

She also noted one other thing. Outside, the day was getting shorter and a winter even colder than the icy autumn they had already experienced was on their doorstep.

-------------------------------

"Jack!" Daniel called out as he dashed down the hall, dodging airmen and SG team members to get to him.

"Hey, Danny," he replied. He felt a bit depressed. He had just met the arrogant geek they had sent to replace Sam as lab leader: Mckay, or Mccoy something. And he just knew that if he entered his office, there would be a request for him to consider this or that person for the vacant SG-1 position. They could all take a jump into an open elevator shaft -- or even better, help Siler with the electrics on a bad day -- as far as he was concerned.

"Is he back?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, I was just going up to say hi. Wanna come with?" he asked. Daniel nodded vigorously.

"So, any news from Teal'c?" Daniel asked as they ascended the stairs.

"Nothing except a brief radio check-in last night. He is trying his luck in the more remote sections of Goa'uld space. Apparently it is safer, and he hasn't heard anything in Apophis' dominion or amongst those who oppose him directly. His words," he explained as they walked towards the conference table where Jacob Carter was waiting patiently.

"Done with the general already?" he asked.

"Yes, there wasn't much to tell. There was a rumor we found worrying, about someone getting captured by Apophis, but it turned out to be a ruse. Most of the Tok'ra believe Sam is either dead or captured by the last of Thoth's offspring," Jacob said, sounding a bit depressed.

"Yeah, we haven't had any luck either. Teal'c is still out there," he replied, not feeling comfortable revealing to Sam's father that Teal'c had explained he felt directly responsible for Sam's plight. The former First Prime felt that if he hadn't hung back, she would not have been on that ship -- something called an Al'kesh -- alone.

"I have been ordered to stop looking. We have bigger problems right now, and we can't really spend our resources on what is my personal mission," Jacob explained, then held up a hand, "I won't give her up, Jack, but I can't keep using Tok'ra resources for my own purposes. I'll keep looking myself. I'll be back if I hear anything, I promise."

"Same goes for us, Jacob," he replied. Behind him, Daniel sat in a chair, brooding, as he did so often these days.

-------------------------------

They had just welded yet another pair of doors together, and as she allowed the icy wind outside to flush the noxious fumes from the room, she noticed Buffy looked a bit pale. "Are you alright, honey?" she asked, feeling anxious at the sight. Buffy had been getting tired fast these last two or three days.

"I don't feel so good," Buffy replied and fell over, passing out.

"Buffy!" She jumped over the bridge segment and picked up the girl. She didn't have a fever. Her skin felt cold and clammy. She felt and checked her in several places, when she found them. In four places Buffy had large growths under her skin. She feared it was cancer from whatever the Goa'uld had done to her. Daniel had said that day that the other subjects had all died. Maybe Buffy's superior endurance had only given her temporary protection.

She looked at the bridge segments they had done. It would barely reach halfway, and she could not jump that far, especially carrying Buffy. She considered her other option. Watching Buffy die a slow agonizing death. She looked down at the bridge again. Still, not even in desperation was it possible.

She felt Buffy's strong heartbeat, but together with her pale face it was just jarring. Thump, thump, thump -- with each echoing movement of that little muscle Buffy rushed towards her too early end. "Oh, god, what am I to do? Someone, please help me!" she begged at the thought of the little girl, who trusted her so much, dying in her arms.

"Query h-help? State need. Medical, Ph-ph," the by-now familiar and as usual ineffective computer at the door replied. It sometimes reacted to what they said, but it never got very far before reaching a logic barrier or fault.

"Medical, okay, but what does it matter? You can't help! You've done nothing every time we've asked so far," she yelled at it; it felt good just getting out her anger.

"E-emergency medical aid to service... Medical officer not available. Adjusting parameters... Power drain... Priority maximum! Reroute all power to Emergency Medical Procedure," the machine said. Suddenly, with a strange ringing noise, one of the biological experimentation devices swung open.

"Emergency Medical Procedures ready. Enter patient into designated bay," the computer said, then began repeating that same sentence. She looked from Buffy to the bay, then back to Buffy. It was one of those that had brought the girl to this situation... Maybe that meant it could help her as well. She lifted the blond girl with her now clearly dark hair roots and slowly slipped her into the tube. It closed as soon as she was clear. It filled with a clear liquid, and blue light swirled around in there as soon as it was full.

The computer stopped talking, then blurted several sentences in a language she couldn't understand. It repeated itself: "Significant biological life code damage. Insufficient information for complete repair. Damage increasing exponentially. 40 approximation calculated using available data and compatible materials. Holding simulation at 50 . Warning: procedure unable to complete. Warning: procedure unable to complete. Query: Availability of suitable donor?"

A small, water-bath-like tray slid out of the device. Did it mean her? Did it want her to donate genetic material to Buffy? But what would that mean? She considered it for a mere moment. She was out of options. This was her only immediate choice. The consequences, whatever they were, would be acceptable. She put her hand in the water bath. It stung for a moment. The tray slid back the moment she removed her hand.

The machine started humming. Suddenly a 3-D hologram of human DNA glowed into existence over the console. It showed Buffy's DNA and sections that looked damaged or incomplete. She was not trained to understand much about molecular biology, and so she could only watch. One thing she recognized was that the machine repaired Buffy's DNA in three ways. One set of alterations was the same blue color as the regular string, which probably meant it was her own DNA. Another was a set of green strings, and a third was a set of purple, but she had no idea what that meant. The machine ran for hours, and all she could do was watch and hope whatever it did also removed the cancer, rather than just the chance of new ones appearing.

The hologram stopped and dropped away. The light in the liquid slowly faded, then the liquid drained out again. The moment it slipped open, releasing a sweet-smelling and slimy Buffy into her arms, she immediately felt for the lumps but found nothing. She started crying in relief, thankful for the miracle of science this Ancient technology had just performed. A wet hand caressed her cheek and whispered, "I feel icky and sticky. What happened?"

She just laughed and drew Buffy into a tight embrace. It felt good, it felt cathartic. It felt like embracing her own little star. She blinked and pulled away in surprise, studying Buffy for a moment, but saw nothing but Buffy's face and her cute little nose, which remained the same as ever. She felt a little teary again.

"Are you alright?" Buffy asked, concerned.

"Yeah, let's take a bit of care of you. I think you've caught some bug, if you pass out like that. The bridge can wait a few days," she replied.

"Okay, but I feel fine now," Buffy said.

"Ah, but you didn't earlier or yesterday. And worse, you didn't tell me. Because of that, you're hereby condemned to rest for at least a day," she said, and made a mental note to continually monitor Buffy's health from now on. Buffy smiled, but let herself be guided down to their cozy sleeping area.

------------------

According to her watch they had been on this world, which she had dubbed Winterhome, for nearly 3 months. She looked over at Buffy, who was busy hoisting the heavy, metal plates that they'd use as counterweights into the place where she intended to position the tail end of their soon-to-be-finished bridge. Today was the day they moved the main section out. Then, they'd add a few more doors to the tail end, move the counterweight off, allow it to tilt and hit the ceiling inside, push it forward carefully, add a new counterweight, and then be ready to walk calmly across. In less than a week, she'd be home and Buffy would get her first comfortable experience in this universe.

She looked at the blond head and held her breath for a moment. It had been a few weeks since the cancer had been cured, and she still kept careful watch over Buffy's condition, trying to keep physically close to Buffy, tickling her to feel for any new growths and the like. That was not, however, what was on her mind now. Buffy had been truly changed by her second turn in the tube. She was growing out blond hair, now. Real blond hair, Sam's color almost exactly. She had figured it out, but she wanted to get home so she could get Janet to make sure privately what she thought it meant. Buffy might be related to her almost like a cousin or... even a child. She didn't know what else to think.

Yesterday, she had considered what she'd do when she got home, and then realized she'd have to choose if she wanted anything more to do with Buffy. And a cold hard truth had hit her in the face. The thought of not seeing Buffy every day was like a stab through the heart. And the conflict was that she also had to consider what she had worked her entire life for. She had her career, she had the Earth's safety to worry about. But a nagging voice had been talking to her all morning. It whispered that she was dodging the issue, that she really wasn't afraid for her job, she was afraid of the commitment, of the hold this girl would have on her if she allowed it. She was afraid to lose the adventure, and frankly, it said she was afraid of doing that final last bit of growing up.

"Ready," Buffy said. She smiled at the grimy girl with her wild hair woven with several braids to keep it out of her face. She liked the long hair on Buffy and had said so repeatedly, even while keeping her own hair short with her knife.

"Alright, then. Are you okay for the push, or too tired?" she asked.

"I feel fine," Buffy replied. They both took a hold of the table legs she had welded on yesterday and with a grunt they started pushing. Soon they started sliding forward. She cursed not having some sort of grease to help, but she hadn't been able to find a good non-toxic substitute.

They labored for hours, until the bridge slowly started tilting under its own weight. "Quickly," she commanded. Buffy let go of her -- by now, almost bent -- pole and dashed over to tip one of the doors down onto the bridge with what amounted to an ear-splitting clang. The noise echoed around the mountains outside, struggling against the howling wind of the early night. Buffy tipped another one down from the other side.

She grabbed the small penlight she had built from parts of the Goa'uld cargo, which had contained a few human items, and walked out onto the bridge, careful to avoid breaking any weak welds or tipping it. She made it almost all the way out before the wind and the already icing-over bridge began being a problem. "We need a rope," she decided, and went back. Still, she couldn't help feeling elated: the few meters missing before getting home would only be a simple step forward.

She went back inside and closed the doors, which were just inches from the tail end of their unfinished bridge. "Verdict?" Buffy asked.

She smiled.

"Oh yeah, dance party in the cave tonight," Buffy gleefully translated her expression.

"Only if you make the music," Sam replied. Buffy nodded. They had discovered Buffy had a talent for tribal rhythms and percussion. Buffy seemed a natural thumper, as they jokingly called it.

"Okay, but you sing. You've got a better voice than me," Buffy said as they entered the elevator.

She smiled. Buffy was a bundle of surprises. She knew by instinct, it seemed, several martial arts. She could plan like an adult and had a spotty but existent education that was almost high school quality. She spoke two languages, English and Italian, and could understand -- to her surprise -- a jumble of words from a great variety of other languages. None of it seemed to have been taught to her, but was rather some sort of memory left over, only a few times more real to Buffy than her own recollection of Jolinar's life, but less real than the memories of an actual life. Buffy also had a vast vocabulary for a child, especially when dealing with pop culture.

She smiled as they settled in for a night of music and a few stories. She had taken to teaching Buffy math, not only because the girl seemed to really lack in that area, but also because it put the girl to sleep faster than anything else she could come up with -- even physics. Still, they had just gotten around to equations, so she wasn't dissatisfied, especially because she often reviewed with her girl and found that Buffy so far had remembered what she had been taught.

-------------------------------

She awoke to a noise. It sounded almost like thunder, but closer. That was a bit scary, given the thickness of the tower walls. She turned to find Buffy equally awake, her eyes glittering in the light reflected into their room from the lighted hydroponic gardens. She got up and held out a hand, which Buffy took without a word. She slung her loaded rifle over her shoulder. They headed for the elevator. The sound seemed to get louder.

She pressed the button for the top floor office. She stepped out of the elevator and saw only darkest night outside. No thunderstorm was raging. In fact, it seemed to be clear for once.

Something blotted out a few stars. It was a moving shape. It dove. The tower rocked slightly and another boom sounded. She ran to the edge and looked down. She could faintly see something attacking the tower near one of the heated levels. It was huge, almost looking like a cross between a bird and a pterodactyl. It hammered into the wall like a wood pecker.

"Sam," Buffy whispered.

"What is it, honey?" she replied. Buffy had left her side.

She turned and saw Buffy standing, staring at an image projected in the air in front of the command chair. It contained writing in Ancient, but she could guess that the red blinks weren't a good sign. "Damn, more incomprehensible tech," she whispered.

The image changed to show the tower, then with more text zoomed out to show something beyond the tower she hadn't seen. A bubble made up of octagons was shown; several octagons were missing. A trail was shown from an octagon back to the tower. The text from before reappeared. A few moments later the animation reappeared. "I think this place had or has a shield, but it is failing, and that thing has gotten in... The damage to the tower. It has gotten in before... And it's attacking the heat sources... Which makes sense, because on this world heat probably means life, and life means food," she said while thinking.

"Shield, like Star Trek shield?" Buffy asked.

"Not exactly, but it is a good comparison," she replied while lost in thought.

"Sam, are we in danger?" Buffy asked.

Sam looked down at Buffy, who at times seemed completely fearless. "Probably not, if we stay in the basement at night. We've been here for a while and we haven't seen it until now. I think it won't be a problem," she explained.

"So, we aren't killing it?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy, it is as big as a house. How could we kill it without using explosives or something?" she said as they reentered the elevator. She decided they'd just have to ignore the booming attacks.

"Beheading usually works," Buffy replied. She stared at her for a while, then shook her head with a wry smile, knowing that such responses casually mentioning extreme violence were apt to come from Buffy when stressed.

They headed down and tried to sleep, even with the booming noise. It was gone when they got up.

-------------------------------

His head hurt. Last night they had an informal wake for Sam. They had gathered SG people, team commanders, scientists and medical personnel, and held a sort of wake for her. Teal'c had returned with only vague rumors of her death, and Jacob had finally accepted some sort of Tok'ra mission that had kept him from visiting the SGC every week. They hadn't packed down her house yet. That was next week. Major Samantha Carter was officially MIA, considered unofficially KIA or worse, possibly snaked. He remembered getting solidly drunk -- at least, his head did.

"Colonel, you have to at least admit McKay is very competent," the general commented while reading some papers that he had to admit were written by him.

"Yes, but he is also arrogant, pompous, and lacks the flexible mindset and military training to replace Carter, sir," he replied promptly. He had hoped to at least get a bit more distance between the wake and having to pick Carter's replacement on SG-1.

George studied him for a bit, then said, "Agreed, but then at least give me better options."

"I am still looking, sir. I am partial to getting another soldier on the team, though," he said, knowing that the military had no replacement for Carter on hand, which was another reason he wouldn't tell George that he had weeded out the best military candidates before he ever saw the list. He wanted more time.

"Alright, but SG-1 remains grounded while this is being solved. Your last two missions were near disasters because you're down a man, Colonel. SG-1 is at less than a squad's strength already. I can't allow anything smaller than a four-man team," George nodded to him as he got up.

"I'll continue my search immediately, sir," he replied. He knew intellectually he had to choose soon. He had felt more for Carter than he would ever admit knowingly to anyone, and not just because of the regulations, but he had to get his team back in the field. He... they owed it to Sam's memory to do exactly that, and soon. He sighed as he left the room, heading for his office. It was time to actually look at the options.

-------------------------------

"Alright, get ready," she said to Buffy. It had been two weeks since they had moved the bridge out. They'd had two more visits by the toothy fairy -- as Buffy had dubbed their nightly visitor -- and an entire level was slowly frying its heaters to keep the breached floor warm, but otherwise they were okay. She had even made a rope and improvised a pick to take them safely across the by now iced-over bridge. She had a good idea that the ice had been what had broken the other bridge, over time. Now they were getting ready for the last big maneuver. She had gathered their meager belongings in a backpack she had made out of some Ancient's clothes, and it waited a few feet away with the rope and the pick.

Buffy lifted the last counterweight.

"Push," she commanded and grunted, trying to keep the bridge down with her weight as it slowly rose. Slowly, the bridge started moving forward as Buffy pushed on her side handle, which they had added along with the new section. They moved it forward and were nearly clear as the bridge started to tip, with the weight out over the edge.

"Can't hold it," Buffy said as she was lifted off the ground. Strong or not, she didn't have the weight to hold the bridge down.

"Counterweights," she managed to croak out. Buffy let go and the bridge rose with a rush of air. Then with another massive boom the first counterweight tipped down on Buffy's side and helped a little. Buffy tipped another one down from its position leaning against the wall. The bridge fell slightly back. Buffy slid over the angled bridge and added two more former doors, which fell heavy and massive as they were onto her side of the bridge. With yet another added, the bridge returned to lie flat against the ground. She walked over and helped Buffy put one more down on each side and then-- ever so slowly -- one flat on top of the tail end. The bridge was almost as done as possible. There was a short, one meter gap between the end of their bridge and the other side and very nearly no wind.

"Let's go now," she said.

Buffy wiped sweat off her brow, as Sam picked up their improvised backpack. They both added two more layers of clothing, making them look rather puffy, and then she tied them together with the rope. She slung her rifle over her shoulder to rest against the backpack, then grabbed the pick in one hand and Buffy in the other.

"Ready to go?" she asked.

"Home?" Buffy asked.

"Almost," she replied. She planned on jumping to Tollana. She knew the Tollan would help them. And as she couldn't be sure that the Tok'ra were still at their most recent base or that the SGC would have kept her IDC open, she could only really go there.

They carefully walked out onto the bridge.

She let go of Buffy's hand and made the jump to the other mountain, feeling elated. There was a whoosh and a massive shadow passed over them.

"Sam, watch out!" Buffy yelled. She turned and saw the flying creature was back. It was turning around for another pass aimed straight for Buffy.

"Buffy, run!" she yelled, and dropped the pick to grab for her rifle. That thing was almost impossibly fast as it dove. She could see it almost head of time in her mind.

There was a resounding metallic boom. Buffy landed at her feet. Their bridge crumbled like it had been impacted by a bomb, and the creature, roaring in anger, disappeared downwards. It had hit where Buffy had been.

"Run," she said and headed for the DHD. Buffy grabbed the pick from the ground and followed.

"Stop at the steps," she commanded, not wanting Buffy to get hit by the wormhole backwash. She stopped at the DHD and punched in the address, thanking her stars, gods, and whatever else that she had a nearly photographic memory to go along with having been to Tollana a few times. She saw out of the corner of her eye the creature reappear out of the deep. It flew up in a curve, looped, flipped, and dove for her.

She slammed the big red button and ducked sideways on instinct. The DHD almost exploded from the impact of the angry creature. She stumbled forward, barely noticing the pick passing her as Buffy hurled it at her attacker before running up the steps.

Thankfully, Buffy was too busy to think much about diving into the Stargate. Her little girl jumped first, but Sam was only a few breaths behind her. She dove out of the other side. A claw made it through before the wormhole winked out, leaving it oozing on the floor.

A security officer charged into the room. "Stop," he commanded, drawing a baton of some sort. Buffy took that wrong and hammered a fist into his balls just as he reached for her. He fell to his knees in pain. Buffy proceeded to knock him out with a head-butt, before she could tell her to stop.

"Buffy, he's a friend," she said, at which the girl looked positively stricken.

More of the guards piled in, but more carefully this time. "Excuse us for dropping by. I couldn't prevail on you to let me talk to someone in charge, could I? Narim, maybe," she commented.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: 

"Unscheduled Off-world activation," Harriman said over the speakers. He almost said "thanks" aloud. They had just returned from P5-something, their latest mission, which had pretty much meant a few days dealing with two entire races, trying to determine who had the right to colonize a planet. It hadn't been fun, and he was sure it'd have gone better, like so much else, had Carter been there. They had just spent their time in debriefing on the latest developments.

"I hope that is SG-2; they've been missing for a few days now," George said. They had disappeared on some sort of diplomatic mission, and now everyone on the planet where they had been claimed to have no idea where they went. The general wasn't buying it, and neither was he. It should have been an SG-1 mission, but with them breaking in lieutenant Yang -- a former cadet, whom Carter had sponsored in the Academy -- they hadn't been able to go.

The general hurried off, while he walked over to see the iris remain closed. It took a moment, then Narim stepped through its surface like it wasn't there. A lot of guns were immediately trained on him. "Greetings, SGC. I come in peace and with good tidings. We have Samantha Carter safely on Tollana," he declared. Jack nearly sagged from his stance with relief. Daniel gaped, and Teal'c allowed himself a little temporary smile.

-------------------------------

"SG-1, I am sure you're all glad to see Narim again," George said as he guided the Tollan into the briefing room.

"Hi, buddy," he said, unable to stop smiling. He felt almost giddy. The friendly greetings came from everyone except former Cadet Yang.

"I am glad to see you all again. As I said on my arrival, Samantha Carter arrived by Stargate to Tollana not long ago and has been staying with us until we could ascertain that she was in full control of herself and her faculties. I can with happiness report that she is free of any Goa'uld symbiont, as is her companion. She now waits on the other side of the gate, most anxious to return here immediately," Narim explained.

"Well then, by all means, let's get her home," he said and looked towards George, who nodded.

"I shall go back and send her through," Narim said.

He remembered something and reached into his pocket, withdrawing a GDO. "Give her this and tell her it's the same code as always," he explained. Narim took the device and nodded.

-------------------------------

They waited anxiously -- soldiers, personnel, and all -- for the gate to reactivate. He, Daniel and Teal'c stood awaiting her at the foot of the ramp. He noticed a misty-eyed Janet standing at the door. The gate started dialing. He watched impatiently as the gate locked chevron after chevron, then opened with a whoosh. He felt as though it took an extraordinarily long time before, suddenly, Sam and a little, long-haired blond kid stepped through the event horizon. They were both exceptionally pale.

He noticed how comfortable Sam seemed with the girl's hand in hers as she walked down the ramp with a smile. She looked thin but otherwise fine. "Sir, Major Samantha Carter reporting back. Sorry it took so long," she said addressing the general behind the glass shielding the control center.

"Welcome back, Major," his voice said over the speakers.

"Colonel," she said with a warmth in her eyes he felt she reserved for him. She let go of the girl's hand. The child seemed less intimidated by the room and the gate than any kid he had seen here before. Maybe she was from a world used to gate travel, he mused.

Sam embraced Daniel and Teal'c. The big guy looked quite surprised but not displeased by that. A hand yanked his pants; he looked down at the girl staring back at him with her almost hypnotically green eyes. "Hi, old guy. I am Buffy."

"Old guy? Say, Sam, where did you get this rugrat?" he replied at the mischief apparent in the girl's eyes.

"Ah, I'm sorry. Everyone, this is Buffy Anne Summers, late of Sunnydale, California, Another Earth, Another Universe. Now, just Buffy Anne Summers of this Earth," Sam said, which made the girl grin.

"Carter, you didn't have to say she was from California, I knew that from the name. Honestly," he said.

The girl looked up at Sam and said, "You were right, he is..."

"I am what?" he asked Sam; she just grinned.

"Come on, Buffy. I want you to meet Janet. Besides, I am sure she wants to look us over before we get to go anywhere. Now remember what I told you, she is not evil, so..." Sam said and guided the girl towards the smiling doctor.

He leaned towards Daniel and asked, "I am what?"

Daniel looked at him and grinned. "Oh that would be spoiling it, Jack," Daniel said, and seemed to decide that he was needed as an escort for Sam and the girl.

"Do you know what they're talking about?" he said to Teal'c, deciding to let everyone get their punches in before he had his sweet revenge.

"Yes, O'Neill," Teal'c replied, then headed after Daniel.

"Colonel, tell the Major I want her up to the briefing room as soon as she is able," George reminded him before he set out to follow the procession.

-------------------------------

He stood at a distance, looking at Sam interacting with the girl. They were apparently chatting in low voices. He noticed Sam was unusually physical with the girl, often touching, caressing or tickling her, which it seemed the girl didn't mind at all. "They look happy," Daniel said.

"Yeah, apparently Carter has had quite the vacation," he replied, realizing too late that it came out nastier than he had wanted it to. To his surprise, the girl looked up and stared straight into his eyes for a few moments before chattering on with Carter. It was strange, but the warning in those eyes wasn't something he had ever seen in the eyes of a kid.

"I'd rather she has been happy than having been tortured by a Goa'uld for over four months," Daniel replied.

"Agreed," Teal'c said. He looked from one to the other, then straightened, as Frasier walked over while looking at what could only be Carter's preliminary medical report.

"Well?" he asked.

"She is who she says she is. She's got the proteins from Jolinar, all the right scars and the dental work. She is also malnourished, but in very good physical shape considering. She has been out of the sun for a bit too long, otherwise she is fine," Janet said.

"And the girl?" Teal'c asked.

"I am still processing her, but she is healthy. She has an entry wound in her back and Goa'uld proteins in her blood, but no parasite. There is one thing, though. Her blood-work is a little scary. We were unable to detect a single disease, dormant or otherwise. In fact, it looks like she has never been successfully infected by anything," Janet explained.

"You're kidding," Daniel replied.

"No," Janet assured him. He nodded. It was a mystery to be solved later.

"Is Sam cleared for debriefing?" he asked.

"Yeah, I see no trouble with that," Janet replied, and headed off to deal with SG-14's latest wounded airman. He swore they were down here almost as often as his own team.

"Hey, Sam, the general wants you up in the briefing room immediately," he said while walking over.

"All of you guys going?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," he said, knowing that neither Daniel nor Teal'c would want to be left out of this debrief.

"Alright, Buffy, remember the rules I taught you?" Sam asked. Buffy nodded. "Good, now please wait in my lab," Sam said, and offered Buffy the strange backpack she had left on the bed.

"Airman, take her to my lab," Sam commanded as she headed out. He was part way to the briefing room with her when he remembered that McKay had taken over Sam's lab. "Ah, well, it couldn't happen to a better man," he mused at the thought of the girl driving the arrogant scientist up the walls.

-------------------------------

She shook George's hand. She could see it in his eyes. He was very happy to have her back. It was the same look she had seen in everyone's eyes. It gave her a feeling of warmth to come home to such a greeting. "First of all, sir... sirs, allow me to apologize for my prolonged absence, but it couldn't be helped," she said before sitting down.

"You seem alright," Daniel said.

"Now, yeah, but it hasn't all been easy," she explained, wondering how much she could or should tell about Buffy and her abilities. She wasn't afraid of what the SGC would do, but rather what the NID might think up. To call them cold-hearted ass-holes with the morality of snakes was to insult snakes. Still, she trusted everyone in the room, and she decided she didn't want to start betraying that trust now.

"It started, I guess, on that Ha'tak a while back. The last of the Goa'uld was trying to implant a girl he had stolen from another reality, but he had initially failed. I couldn't accept him getting away with her to try again or maybe kill her, so I followed him. I made it onto his ship and we fought. I wonder about the model, though. I don't know its name," she mused.

"Al'kesh. It is a Goa'uld medium-distance attack vessel used to bomb targets, or even attack Ha'tak motherships," Teal'c said.

"Ah, yeah, well, we fought, and I managed to overpower and kill the Goa'uld right there, just as we entered hyperspace on autopilot. Unfortunately, our fight destroyed the controls and I couldn't turn us around. So I spent the next five or six days with a really sick girl. Well, she got better along the way, and we got the introductions out of the way. She also turned out to be a very remarkable kid. Sensible, smart and a bit jumpy. We had barely gotten comfortable with our rather minimal living situation before we came out of hyperspace over a planet, whose location I still have no idea of. It was in the middle of a rather intense ice age," she thought back. With the DHD destroyed and their bridge gone, there was no real point in looking for a way back, except for all that interesting Ancient technology.

"Go on," Jack said.

"Sorry," she replied, "Well, lucky for us, the ship could land on autopilot. We set down in a tower built long ago by the Ancients rather than the Goa'uld. It sat maybe a few hundred kilometers from one of the massive polar glaciers. You wouldn't believe the weather. That was where the Goa'uld got the Quantum Mirror, as well as some of the other stuff they traded with the System Lords. I found traces of them. Anyway, I was lucky to discover a still functional hydroponic facility maintained by the Ancient technology even after this long. With that and the hydroponics' spring, we were mostly supplied. The only problem was that the Tower stood atop a mountain that I knew I couldn't scale up or down, and especially not with Buffy. Meanwhile, the Stargate was atop a neighboring peak with the bridge to it gone. So we hunkered down, and I came up with a plan to construct a bridge made of the metal doors of the Tower, welded together with low-quality thermite that I improvised. It was heavy and slow going which is why we didn't get to the gate before this morning."

"Whoa, why do I feel like you just jumped over a lot there?" Jack asked. She felt a knot in her stomach form at the thought of that horrible day with the cancer and what she had changed in Buffy. This was the moment: if she told them that Buffy now was physically partly Carter, then she'd have lost her last defense. Then she'd have to admit that... That she didn't want Buffy to go away, to go stay with some security-cleared foster family, or worse.

"Carter?" Daniel asked. She figured her expression was giving something away.

"Sorry. No, everything wasn't hunky-dory the entire time there. We had barely enough food. We had no one to talk to but each other. Did you know you can actually compose songs, if you're starved enough for entertainment? No, that is not why I have this expression," she admitted, and took a deep breath.

"You all remember that Daniel said they had experimented genetically on people. They had done it to her, as well. It didn't take, or rather it didn't do much more than damage," she said, feeling cold suddenly.

"One day Buffy keeled over. She had been weak for a few days, but I had written it off as maybe a cold. I was wrong. She had cancer unlike anything I've ever heard off. I could almost literally feel the tumors growing under her skin. Still, I managed to get one of the machines there running, with a bit of help from the Ancients' medical procedures, which were apparently very important to them. The entire place was practically falling apart and its power resources drained, but still a mere tourist-welcoming computer was allowed to pull in all the power to use on another one of those DNA resequencers. This one worked well -- apparently they do when not operated by idiots. The machine was able to reverse the cancer and repair Buffy's DNA... Well, that is not entirely true," she confessed, and looked up at the gathered group.

"I gave it my DNA so it had something to work from," she whispered.

Jack and Teal'c looked unimpressed; maybe they didn't consider the consequences. George looked proud, as if he applauded her actions but hadn't considered what it meant, either. He would get it when he had the time. She knew he would. Daniel's eyes widened. He understood, always so smart and in tune with people. "You think you're practically her mother now," he said.

She looked back down at the table. "Maybe... At the very least, I am something. She used to have dark blond hair, not white-blond. She does now, though. Almost matching my color."

"Oh," Jack said, the penny apparently dropping, but with him it could just be a play to make her say something more.

"Congratulations," Teal'c said, in his formal manner. Some would consider him simple for thinking it was that easy, but she knew the warrior saw right to the heart of matters and had probably drawn the same conclusion as Daniel.

"I don't know if you could call it worthy of that. I am not her mother. I don't even know if it actually used my DNA... And frankly, I haven't told Buffy anything. Her mother died with her, alone in their house. She had to call the ambulance all by herself. Buffy's life before coming to this universe wasn't a happy one, but she is unclear about the details," she explained.

"Amnesia. You sure she isn't a plant?" Jack immediately asked.

"Yes, very sure, Jack," she said. It was just that simple. Buffy was not really that capable at subterfuge. Her directness got in the way.

"Okay," he said, believing her from her inflection alone.

"I expect a full report within the month. Now, Major, you have to stay on base, while we clear the paper work, get you reinstated and reissue you a home," the general said. She winced; she hoped some of her possessions were still recoverable.

"I'll call my guy and get Carter's stuff out of storage," Jack replied. She looked at him, as did everyone else in the room.

"What? I never believed she was gone for good. A little snake-head like that some Thoth brother? Bah!" Jack said. They all laughed.

George got up and went over to pat her on the shoulder, while smiling. "Really good to have you back, Samantha." Then he turned and left.

"So, what are you going to do about Buffy?" Daniel asked.

She stared at them, feeling the war that had raged in her mind for months start anew. "I don't know. I really don't know," she replied.

Suddenly an alarm blared. It was an internal alarm, indicating that there was a security problem. They dashed down the stairs to the control room. "Ah, finally back home," she said, as she watched the chaos around them. She ran over to the computer and looked at the source code of the security report. She blinked, then ran. It was the security designation for her lab.

-------------------------------

"Damn it, Carter, go slowly," Jack said as she was about to just run in. He had a zat ready, as did Teal'c. She fell back, remembering that she didn't carry a weapon at the moment.

"Just be careful. Buffy startles easily, and well... There... uhm," she said, realizing for the first time that it could very well be that Buffy was the reason for the alarm, although it seemed unlikely.

They moved up to the door. Jack took hold of the handle and opened it. Inside, everything looked normal except, when she considered that her entire lab, her things, and all her experiments were gone. Also, there was a man on the floor next to the alarm. She looked around, trying to see through the gap between Teal'c and Jack.

Jack, then Teal'c, walked inside, with Teal'c covering Jack. She saw that the slightly balding civilian (from the lack of rank on his uniform) was still breathing. He also had a bloody nose and an impression of the alarm on his forehead. She looked around, then sensing something, she looked up. Buffy was clinging to the ceiling by pressing her arms and legs out against two slightly buckling pipes. "You can come down," she said, and held out her arms.

Buffy looked relieved and dropped heavily into her embrace. "Shh," she said, as the girl started sniffling. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"I came, and he got very angry. I said you told me to go here, and then he cursed at me and called me and you names. I told him what he could do with his... words, and he... he grabbed me. Really hard. I shook him off, but he charged me. I reacted, and..." Buffy silently cried into her shoulder.

"...And I broke his nose, then threw him against the wall. He pressed that thing before I could stop him, but I made sure he was unconscious just after. There were men out there with guns, so I hid," Buffy explained. She noticed Teal'c and Jack looking at her with eyes full of questions.

-------------------------------

The alarm had been called off. The civilian -- some scientist, probably her replacement -- had woken up in the infirmary, and Buffy had been given another check-up by Janet. She could tell that another one would not be in the books, if Buffy had anything to say about it. Janet had taken another blood sample.

"Care to explain, Major Carter?" General Hammond asked.

She winced and turned. "Yes, sir, although I'd rather do it in private... The rest of SG-1 can hear this," she explained.

"Come with me," he said abruptly, and took them to Janet's office across the hall.

"Well?" Jack asked, clearly curious.

"Buffy's from another reality. We all knew this, right? Apparently, in her universe it is not unknown for certain people to develop superhuman strength, speed and endurance. She is much stronger than a human. I've seen her lift nearly a ton and work for an entire day moving heavy objects. She gets really hyper if she doesn't do anything. She also eats nearly double what I do, and as you have seen, it is not because she's fat," she explained.

"And you didn't say anything," Jack stated.

"Because we've all seen what the NID has done in the past. I am afraid they won't stop at taking Buffy away to see how she ticks," she explained.

"Is she dangerous?" George asked.

"No, well not really sir. Buffy has next to no flight response compared to other kids. She'll fight to defend herself or protect others every time, if threatened. At least, that is what I can understand from her stories. She is also very respectful of her own power. She does at times have a bit of trouble controlling her strength when she gets emotional, but that isn't uncommon for kids," she explained.

"I see," George said.

"Please, sir, Buffy is a great kid. She is really special. She is good-hearted and caring. Yes, she can be a little abrupt, but that is the extent of her flaws," she said, knowing that she saw Buffy with more than a hint of a pair of rose-colored glasses.

"I want her examined closely by Doctor Frasier and some psychologists, Major," he said.

"Alright, but not today... sir," she said resolutely.

"What? You can't be serious, Sam. She could be dangerous. You wouldn't know, you're too close," Jack said.

She had never felt a pang of hatred like she did for a moment after Jack had said that. Of course, then her logic got through to her and told her he was right. She wasn't exactly seeing straight when it came to Buffy. "Still. Sir. She has been through too much today. She's been chased by a dinosaur-like bird, seen two entirely new worlds, been attacked by Tollans, hit a scientist, and been examined by Janet... twice. She has earned her rest," she said, barely managing not to clench her teeth and glare.

Jack had the decency to look apologetic. "Alright, but soon," George reminded her.

"Yes sir," she agreed.

-------------------------------

"Is he going to be alright?" Buffy asked for the third time.

"Yes, Buffy, he'll be fine. You only broke his nose and gave him a concussion," she replied.

"I don't know what came over me. I was really nervous, and he was so angry... I guess I was a little afraid," Buffy admitted and snuggled closer to her.

"It's alright. Goodnight, kiddo," she said as Buffy's eyes closed.

"Night, mom," Buffy whispered, clearly almost gone.

She sat staring out into the room. She stared at the wall. She had imagined a battle in her mind. A war between her instincts and care for Buffy, on the one hand, and her career. It had been a long one, but it had been nearly over, her career losing for months now. Today, after so long, she realized it was so simple. It was like she had just crashed through every wall and conquered every rampart. Only moments ago those innocent words, a mistake more than intent from Buffy, had picked up the career Carter and launched her into the night on a rocket. She leaned her head down on Buffy's and fell asleep soon after.

-------------------------------

"Aww, look at those two," Jack thought, as he studied the security monitor before hefting up the food tray in one hand and knocking softly on the door.

He slipped inside and put the tray on the table. Sam looked up at him and winced. "What?" he asked curious. The girl Buffy opened her eyes and looked around in confusion.

"What is that smell? It smells good," she said before seeing him and the tray.

"Food! See, Sam, real food!" Buffy was nearly jumping up and down.

"Then let's eat," Sam replied with smile. The girl rushed over, then stopped and looked up at him.

"Thank you," she said before turning back towards the food.

"You're welcome," he replied, and blinked. He had felt almost frozen in place by those eyes. Sam just smiled mysteriously and sat down to grab a few bites as well. They ate their breakfast before he dared to comment on the bed-hair and was promptly asked to go out and procure new clothes for the pair, as well as get access for them in the baths.

-------------------------------

The last three days had passed quickly for her. Buffy was examined -- under protest, this time -- by Janet, before an NDA-bound psychologist was allowed to question Buffy for a couple of days. She insisted on sitting in on it all, because as she said, she was not yet officially reinstated so there was nothing else that she had to do. Now, Buffy was off being entertained by Teal'c, who had offered to show her the beautiful countryside around the mountain, while they talked.

"So, doctor, we'll start with your assessment," George prompted the psychologist, who was clearly unused to their world of secret bases, closed doors, and very long-termed NDAs.

The specialist, a glasses-wearing man of maybe 50, cleared his throat, then said, "Well I must say I've never come across a more unusual child in my time. I can't give you much more than my impressions, but to answer the question you asked me this morning, 'Is that girl dangerous?' That, I must admit, depends."

He gave the general his report and tapes. "She is, as I have written, clearly suffering from a rather serious and possibly permanent form of retrograde amnesia. She remembers fragments of her life, mostly made up of large sections of her childhood and segments that seem to be either dreams or maybe the source of the trauma causing the amnesia condition. The girl has clearly experienced long periods of psychological abuse, maybe even physical abuse, in the past. She is able to compartmentalize her emotions in a way usually only seen in adults trained to resist torture or veterans of war. She has nearly no conscious fear; however, this probably covers for a much more complex subconscious mental system. She is quick to anger and probably prone to violence; however these are not -- thankfully -- in her case indicative of sociopathic tendencies, but rather just a fiery temper. In fact, if you wanted to put a psychological archetype on Buffy Summers, she is a martyr, or a protector. She barely recognizes that she needs care herself, having completely projected these needs onto others. However, this can lead to subconscious tendencies to isolation, feelings of distance from others, and in gifted individuals this could lead to a complete break with society's norms. I must also give you a warning, though: Buffy Summers takes her protectiveness so far that, were she older, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd be able to kill or allow herself to be killed for the sake of others. She has, as I said, little or no fear of losing her own life. I have written my exact findings down in a summary, and you'll receive a full report within the week. I will recommend that the girl gets therapy," he said, and looked around.

"Thank you, Doctor. Now please, if you'd wait outside," the general said. As the doctor left, Teal'c entered.

"Doctor Frasier," Hammond said to the brown-haired woman who had listened in silence.

"Well sir, I have examined Buffy as well. She is a sweet girl, if seriously afraid of one thing at least, no matter what Doctor Reynolds told you," Janet explained, "She is afraid of hospitals."

"I examined her several times, and the findings are conclusive. Buffy Summers is fully human, with less than 0.03 DNA difference between her and the norm. There is absolutely no evidence of any source of her strength, her endurance, or her uncommonly aggressive immune system. Her sensory acuity is astounding, but again I found no physiological reason for it. Like Sam, she could probably control Goa'uld devices with training, due to the protein leftovers in her body. Oh, and one more thing: from a maternity point of view, Buffy does share DNA with Sam -- although not in the way parents normally do, with chromosome splits, but more like mixed in with all the rest. Any court would consider Buffy and Sam related enough to be mother and daughter on any regular DNA test," Janet said.

Sam didn't feel the shock she had feared. She had known in some way since that day.

Jack, Daniel and Teal'c took it with a bit more astonishment. Hammond asked what he felt was the more important question: "You're absolutely sure about not finding any source of her strength?"

Janet leaned forward and said, "I've checked both through physically examination and through the rather difficult-to-get biopsy." Sam remembered Buffy squealing and nearly hitting Janet. "Buffy's muscles are entirely normal. She is in exceptionally good shape, trained like an athlete, which is rather amazing in a girl her age, but that is about all. I can find no physical explanation," Janet concluded, revealing her irritation with that mystery in the tone of her voice.

"Alright," General Hammond turned towards her. "Major Carter, what are your impressions of the child? Will she be able to keep our secret?"

"Well, to be honest, Buffy by her own admission can't keep a secret if it'd endanger people. She'd be willing to divulge it if I or another person she considers important is threatened, but honestly, sir, if we explained how many it would hurt to know about us, she'd never reveal a word to anyone, even under duress," she said, convinced of the truth of her words.

"I see. And what are your intentions with her? No one is demanding that you take care of her. Your saving of her life using your own DNA doesn't indebt you to her in any way. Your life here at the SGC is rather unstable; it might not be conducive to bringing up a child," he explained.

"Frankly, sir, I want to raise Buffy myself. It is just that simple. As soon as possible I'll apply for her citizenship and for my adoption of her on grounds of her being my daughter. Any test will verify that fact," she said. She knew those were huge steps, but she saw no reason why she should beat around the bush, either. She'd take it slow with Buffy, but she was sure Buffy would accept her sooner or later.

George looked into her eyes for a split second, then nodded, "I'll help arrange everything. I am sure it won't be a problem."

"Thank you, sir," she said.

"Fine, for now I consider the matter closed. Now, I have a few calls to make, so you'll excuse me," the General said and rose.

They all followed his example. He was just out of earshot when Jack turned towards her. She was heading for the stairs, not really expecting much more than a few comments from Jack and Daniel.

"Carter, are you crazy? Your job here is unsteady, you work insane hours, and you could get killed every time you go through the gate," he said.

She looked at him, trying her best to understand rather than get angry or defensive. "Sir, if it comes down to a choice between bringing up Buffy or gate-travel, then have a nice time without me," she said, and realized that although she'd miss it a bit, the challenges of just figuring out alien technology would probably be enough to keep her busy for the rest of her days, anyway.

"Carter, I didn't mean it like that. It's just... I've seen it happen to men under my command over the years. You've never shown any interest in anything but the SGC until now," he said. Daniel and Teal'c looked interested in their conversation, but stayed silent as they walked down the corridor. The evening shift was coming up and the base was slowly emptying.

"Maybe it was time," she replied.

"O'Neill, do not several members of the SG teams have children and families? In fact, do I not travel into danger while my son lives?" Teal'c said, more as a statement than a question.

"Teal'c, your son is a Jaffa warrior in training. He'll follow in your footsteps as soon as he is ready. And those other people all have husbands and wives who help with it all. Carter would be alone," Jack said, then paused, clearly feeling as if he had overstepped a bit, which she felt he had.

"Jack," Daniel said, "She wouldn't be alone. That kid is going to have the world's best soldier, the only Jaffa ex-First Prime on the planet, as well as an archaeologist as uncles. She has us, and I bet Jacob will want to say something about this, as well."

"What, like 'hell, no!' or some snakehead word for drooling-over-potential-host?" Jack said.

"Alright, I give. I just wanted to make sure Carter can't come begging me to take that cutie off her hands. Because you know I'd do it," Jack continued with a smile. "I am sorry, Carter. I just want to make sure you and Buffy don't both become dreadfully unhappy," he explained.

"I understand, but I promise we won't," she said.

"Just you wait. I have one word for you: teenager," he explained.

"I can handle it," she said, although the thought did make strange thoughts and images spring up in her mind.

"Yeah, but only because I am good at sniping, and Teal'c could probably beat all the boys in town with just one stick. Seriously, Sam, that one is going to make boys' knees turn to water with a look. She already has almost everyone here wrapped around her finger. Or she would've, if we hadn't been so distracted," he warned.

She just nodded. "Teal'c, where is Buffy, by the way?" she asked as they came to the main sub-level intersection.

"I sent her with Airman Waters to the infirmary. She expressed regret over hitting Rodney McKay and wanted to go apologize. I told Airman Waters to await us there," Teal'c explained.

She set out for the infirmary.

-------------------------------

Buffy was in fact not apologizing to McKay, mostly because he didn't want to say a single word to her. He was a bit annoying, but then again she had hit him, and she really felt bad about that.

"Buffy." She turned and smiled as Sam returned. She hated when Sam was away for long -- mostly, because she still wasn't used to so many people. They were making her all jumpy. Maybe it was because they were so loud and smelly. SG-1 were nice, but people in general made her a little nervous.

"Hey," she walked over to Sam and said, smiling winningly. She was a bit nervous. Sam was back home, and she probably wanted to go home. Buffy wanted to know what was going to happen to her. But every time she tried to ask, she teared up like a baby. She didn't want to do that.

"So, Sam, how would you like to go home?" the guy Jack said. He was exactly like Sam had described him. He was funny and old, but he really protected his people. She was glad Sam had him. He hadn't liked her at first, but she was new. She didn't much like new, either, but when almost everything was new, there really wasn't much more she could do than accept it. She liked that better than being grumpy anyway.

"Home? I thought you had MIA-boxed my stuff, like we did with Daniel a while back," Sam answered. Buffy wondered what that meant but decided not to be annoying and ask. She noticed a really small knife that looked really sharp -- in fact, there was an entire row of them. She realized they were probably for the sick, and so resisted touching them. She wondered if they could be thrown precisely and decided they probably could. She then wondered why she thought so much sometimes and knew so much about weapons, but she had to admit she really liked them.

Sam didn't know it, but Buffy thought she could even use, assemble and disassemble Sam's rifle, after having seen it done several times. She wondered if she'd fly back if she fired it, though. She realized she had lost track of the conversation while looking all over the infirmary and still not managing to like it. "Buffy," Sam called out, snapping her instantly out of her thoughts.

"Yeah," she replied.

"I just got the key to my home. How would you like to come home with me tonight?" Sam asked. Buffy instantly felt elated. She felt safe enough in the mountain, but she had known when Teal'c, the big guy with his strange thing in the stomach, took her outside that she belonged under a sky, not under a stone.

"Uh, I'd love to," she admitted, then felt a chill. If Sam let her stay, was it only for a night or a week, and then it was off to somewhere else? She knew that, although it didn't seem so, there was real danger and darkness on Earth. Of course, from Sam's stories there were a lot darker things out there on other planets. Still, she'd rather stay with Sam. She felt safer with her than with anyone she could remember, except her old mom. And she knew that her old mom was no longer around.

"Come on, then," Sam said. She was at Sam's side, her hand firmly clasped in Sam's, before the woman had even moved towards the door.

"There'll be a lot of boxes, but we'll deal with them tomorrow," Sam explained as they headed for the elevator that would take them up.

"Remember, Carter, I'll call when you're reinstated and cleared for travel again," Jack called out as the elevator doors closed in front of them.

"Aren't they going home too?" she asked.

"No, Daniel was busy, Teal'c lives here on base, and Jack had a few things to do before he could go home," Sam explained.

-------------------------------

"So this is home," Sam said and let then into the empty-feeling house. She looked around. Buffy remembered images of her homes in the past. One had been a lot bigger, cold, filled with art and her parents fighting. One was where her mom had died, but it had been a nice place. Then there was one where she had lived with some sort of tall teenager, who wasn't nice to her most of the time. This looked like a good place, if smaller than some of the others.

Sam carried the pizzas inside and set them on a large wooden table. Buffy followed the wafting smell of the cheese with unconcealed joy. She was feeling a bit hungry again. Sam went through a few boxes with 'kitchen' written on them before coming back with plates, forks and knives. She had already grabbed a slice and was eating when Sam put the plate under her. She smiled apologetically, but Sam didn't look angry. Sam was cool that way.

Sam ate as well. Then after a while she asked, "Buffy, how would you like to stay here... with me?"

Buffy felt a tingle down her spine, and it was as if a dark cloud on the horizon went away. "I'd love to," she replied, realizing too late that she had used the English accent. She didn't know where she had it from, but occasionally she slipped into it. Sam just smiled and went on eating, like it had been just a little thing she had asked.

-------------------

She watched Buffy play around in her rather small garden, performing what could only be termed as extreme gymnastics. She was sure that if she didn't have to keep the secrecy clauses, then she could get Buffy onto the Olympic team in nearly every discipline, and she'd have a decent chance of winning. Of course, she would never cheat like that, and neither would Buffy, but it was thought-provoking.

She turned back and put the last few paintings up in what could only be termed as her ex-office. She had converted her office to Buffy's room. They only had a bed, closet, and dresser for her so far, but she was planning on taking her girl shopping later in the day. Her door bell rang.

She went out and opened the door. Outside, the entire gang was waiting. "Hi, guys," she said.

"I told you, O'Neill, that we should have warned Major Carter of our imminent arrival. This is unkind of us," Teal'c berated Jack.

"Oh, she doesn't mind. Now, do we have to stay outside, or will you let us in? We bring gifts and stuff," Jack said and indicated the heavy-looking bags they were carrying.

"Hey, Teal'c!" Buffy called out as she arrived in the hall.

"Greetings, Buffy Anne Summers," Teal'c replied.

"Bother that, my name is Buffy so like, just call me that: Buffy," Buffy argued. Sam smiled; it was a pointless exercise. Teal'c considered calling people by their nicknames to be demeaning to them and their ancestry.

"I cannot. Forgive me," Teal'c replied as they moved into the living room.

"Of course... But why?" Buffy asked as they sat down. She went to the kitchen to grab some drinks.

"Why what, Buffy Anne Summers?" Teal'c replied.

"That is too long. You don't call Sam 'Major Samantha Carter' all the time, do you?" Buffy asked.

"I do not," Teal'c agreed.

"So you can just call me Buffy, then?" Buffy asked with hope.

"I cannot. I can, however, offer you a compromise, Buffy Summers," Teal'c said.

Buffy stared at Teal'c for a few moment, then shrugged, "If that is all I'm gonna get, then it's all I'm gonna get." She looked around the room.

"Good choice," Jack agreed, and pulled something out of his bag. "Now, look and learn, Carter. This, Buffy, is a present, but you're only going to get it if you never -- and I do mean never -- call me 'old guy' again. It's just 'Jack', to you," he explained, holding the gift away until she nodded.

"Thanks," Buffy said as she tore into the gift, "Just Jack."

They all laughed. Daniel leaned forward and watched as Buffy unwrapped a small set of dolls and clothes for them. Sam guessed that it was really expensive. Buffy squealed and quickly tore the wrapping apart. It was the first really kid-like thing she had seen Buffy with for a while. Buffy sat down on the floor and immediately started dressing and undressing the dolls. Sam suddenly realized how the entire shopping mall fixation of teenagers got started.

With Buffy distracted, both Daniel and Teal'c put their gifts on the table for later giving. Jack threw something to her. "You got a medal for the Replicator thing and a few other things, that were approved while you were away," Jack explained as she opened the medal box.

"Holy Hannah, if I ever have to carry more than my ribbons, I'll be almost bent double," she joked, while inwardly rejoicing over her success.

"Yeah, I was just wondering if the medals were the reason for Jack's back pains," Daniel said.

"Nah, that would be old age," Buffy commented from the floor.

"Hey, I remember something about a promise," Jack said, and gave Buffy a look.

"Well, I didn't call you... that combination of words you didn't want... Uh, are those for me, too?" Buffy said, and looked at Daniel and Teal'c's gifts.

"Yes," Teal'c replied.

"Cool!" Buffy went for them, then stopped and looked stricken. Buffy turned, headed around the table, jumped up, and hugged Jack. "Thanks, Jack," Buffy said.

Sam smiled at Jack's almost shocked smile as he patted Buffy on the back uncomfortably, then said, "you're welcome." Buffy let go, turned and reached across the table for the topmost gift. It was an amorphous shape wrapped in paper.

Buffy shredded the paper with impunity, then lifted the stuffed pink toy pig up with big eyes. "What is it?" Sam asked, immediately noticing the emotion in Buffy's eyes.

"He's like... His name will be Mr. Gordo, and I'll take good care of him," Buffy declared, and tucked the pig under her arm with practiced ease. Buffy reached for the last gift, which Sam fully expected to be a book of some sort, knowing Daniel.

Buffy unwrapped the heaviest of her gifts with a bit more care than the other two, revealing what was essentially a very small book-like laptop. Buffy released another ear-splitting squeal, then set off to her previous position on the floor with all her presents. She put them down, then went over and hugged both Teal'c and Daniel, ignoring any protests they had.

Sam smiled. Buffy was a very physically affectionate girl. Jack, Daniel and Teal'c would just have to get used to that. Buffy took her stuff away to her room and stayed in there playing, while they spoke.

"So, how are things living as a twosome?" Jack asked.

"Well, sir, honestly for us it is almost normal at this point. I have to remind myself each morning that I don't have to do bone-achingly hard work or ration the food, but otherwise it is fine," she explained. The return hadn't yet changed the tone between Buffy and herself. She was anticipating that it would change once she got back to work. She had to get Buffy enrolled in school first, though. Which meant she had to have a lot more paperwork faked through the SGC. She had found the first documents in her mail this morning, identifying Buffy as a U.S. citizen.

"Ah, well, it'll come to ya eventually. Raising a kid is hard," Jack said.

"No doubt, O'Neill," Teal'c agreed.

-------------------------------

"Well, what's the verdict?" Janet asked, as Sam sat nearly a week later, staring at the papers that had accumulated this week. They had just gotten back from helping Daniel with his problem in Egypt, and already her work seemed to consume the time she'd rather spend with Buffy. She had been busy getting resurrected, paperwork-wise, too, and while the SGC did have experience with things like that happening over the years it was a bit difficult. It hadn't been helped by the veritable horde of educators, assessors and child psychologists that had tried, as subtly as possible, to assess Buffy all week. It had left Buffy a bit distrustful of people in uniform and maybe a bit annoyed even at her.

The stack of papers she was looking at was the result. "Well, according to all this, Buffy is even less of a typical child than anyone expected," she said.

Janet sat down with empathy in her eyes and asked, "Care to explain?"

"Well, they all... Heck, I even agree with it... They all think Buffy is a lot more mature than her physical age lets on. She has almost the emotional maturity of a late teenager. She must also have had some pretty serious teachers. She speaks English with the vocabulary of an adult and is even clever enough to imitate several dialects of it. She is also fluent, if accented, in Italian and -- get this! -- she can read Latin, Greek, and even snippets of other long-dead languages, such as ancient Sumerian, and understands single words in even more of them. She reads and does math at early high school level, but her understanding of geography and all other scientific courses is at an early junior high level. She has a logical IQ of maybe 130, her linguistic intelligence is only slightly above average or so, but other things they've tested were off the charts, such as her interpersonal, spatial, and kinesthetic intelligence," she explained.

"That is a lot for a kid that is, well, almost ten," Janet admitted.

"Gets better. This, we knew by Wednesday. Then Jack suggested I have her checked out by some other people -- military people. Get this, Janet. Buffy is a savant in the truest sense of the term. They luckily made their tests like games, so she wouldn't feel any more out of place. They wanted to test Buffy about those martial arts moves I had seen. Jack brought a few Air Force Academy and Special Forces trainers to see her. She knows at least three martial arts that they could recognize, although she uses and mixes them freely, as if they're natural to her. I mean, who teaches a kid Karate, Taekwondo and Muay Thai?" she sighed.

"Jack tried showing her a few judo moves. She learned them on her second try. Jack tried a few other things, then discovered something really scary. Buffy is trained in the use of knives, swords, staffs, bows, crossbows, maces and even axes. And I don't mean just swinging them. She knows how to use them so that she'll inflict real damage. She also admitted that she was fairly sure she could disassemble and reassemble a P-90 from her memory of having seen me do it. Jack, of course, won't let kids near real weapons, which is a good thing, but still!" she said and shoved more of the paper out of her way.

"We knew she was special and different; why else would the Goa'uld kidnap her from her reality?" Janet admitted.

"That isn't why I am... frustrated. Don't you get it, Janet, what all those things add up to? Buffy's life has been hell, before coming here. She still had nightmares occasionally back at the Tower. But all those things she knows and things she can do. I think that someone back on her Earth found out she was a genius at physical expression, and maybe naturally superhuman -- maybe not naturally. Anyway, they took her in and trained her. They were making her into a soldier, a killer; the signs are so clear. Someone who would kill and be willing to sacrifice herself for others, all in the name of a cause or some person she was attached to," she explained.

Janet sat staring at her for a little while, then nodded. "Alright, but what about the rest of this?" her favorite doctor asked.

"Oh, this," she lifted another report, "is Jack's people telling me they found out Buffy has an astounding talent for planning military strategy, as well as intelligence and tactical operations. And this," she lifted the second-to-last report, "is the faked paperwork identifying Buffy as a gifted student and suggesting I enroll her in the school district of the Academy, both for safety and because they think they have the teachers that could help her there. They leave it up to me to decide how bored out of her skull I want Buffy to be."

"What do you mean?" Janet asked.

"She knows all the stuff they'll teach her -- at least, until they get to sciences or move her to full time high school advanced placement. But really, it is because of who and how she is. Buffy is not like me; I knew that from the beginning. She is a physical learner, not really a self-directed academic. I won't give up on having her learn things, but I am sure she won't learn much more than slacking off in a regular classroom. She needs to learn by seeing and doing. Now, I know she can and has to learn more discipline and self-direction; she is only ten, and her personality will change a lot as she grows up, but I just know in my bones that sitting on a chair in a classroom will only frustrate her," she explained, finally airing the last of her irritations.

"I see, but what can you do?" Janet asked.

"Hence, my being a little frustrated. I have no idea," she admitted.

"Unscheduled Off-world activation," Walter said over the speakers. They looked at each other and went up to the Gate control room.

As they entered, she heard General Hammond say, "Record the message, Sergeant."

"Ah, Major, we're receiving a message from the Tok'ra. It is addressed to you," he commented as they approached.

"I'll examine it right away," she said, and went to turn on the playback.

"SGC, be advised Tok'ra vessel inbound to Patterson AFB, ETA approximately 8 hours from receipt of this message," the voice of a Tok'ra symbiont reported. "Jacob Carter is asking for permission to visit Earth and his family for a short while after returning from an assignment," the voice went on to explain. She felt both elated and a little scared. She had no idea how her father would react to the news of Buffy, and she had no idea how Selmak would take the more exotic parts of Buffy's nature, either.

"Sir," she turned towards her commanding officer, expecting his orders.

"Go, but bring Jacob back here for a visit. I know he is looking forward to seeing you home and safe. You're still off duty, pending a last review. I guess, due to circumstances, the review board will be willing to wait a few days... Major, have you decided upon a school for your daughter?" he asked as she was about to leave.

"No, sir, I believe that Buffy might have great difficulty with regular school. I am considering how I can make sure her education becomes more rounded but also play to her strengths and encourage them," she said.

"I have several recommendations and a few letters from the Air Force Academy High School, practically begging me to try and convince you to let them take care of her at one of the elementary or middle schools on their premises. The security department has also said they'd like that environment better than most other options in the area," the General reported, as they went down the stairs. Janet waved goodbye and headed off.

"The security department, sir? I had no idea that they were involved in any way with this," she said, feeling a bit anxious at the thought of weaving Buffy in too tightly with the military, without her say-so.

"Orders, Major. After careful review at the highest level, it has been decided that Buffy Summers will be accorded some protection, due to the risk that she could be kidnapped or threatened in order to extort you, Major," he said. She smiled, guessing that the General and Jack were colluding to make her more at ease with letting Buffy out of her sight. Still, she had a bigger worry. Her dad was coming to visit, and now -- much earlier than she had expected to have to explain what was essentially a new member of their family to him.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: 

She had pulled in a favor from an old academy classmate and gotten Buffy to join her on the remote, disused airstrip off in the wilderness near Patterson that the SGC used for their visitors -- at least those with a cloaking field. The rest, thankfully, either preferred gate travel or, like the Asgard, stayed in orbit. A slight hum and a feeling of air movement was all that denoted her dad's arrival, until there was a soft thump of the Tel'tak landing.

She considered what she would say about the blond girl standing next to her. She had driven home rather haphazardly and convinced a bored Buffy to change into something cute, telling her that they were going to see her dad. Buffy, who had been forced to actually read a book as her TV was broken and she naturally wasn't allowed out of the house, had jumped at the chance of going out.

"There is something there," Buffy said and pointed exactly where she estimated her dad had landed. A moment later the ship uncloaked, surprising Buffy. She watched the airlock open, and then her dad stepped out looking fine, dressed as he was in his Tok'ra clothes. She hefted the bag at her side, which contained a uniform and some regular clothes.

He smiled widely and ran towards her, "Sam, it is great to see you." She knew he had only heard of her return a few days ago and had probably gotten his leave immediately upon hearing it. She felt the presence of Selmak as he approached. She noticed Buffy picking up on the symbiont as well, but thankfully she had taken the time back during their sojourn in the tower to tell Buffy about the ability to feel a Goa'uld and a Tok'ra, as well as a few other things that went with being a former host.

"Dad," she said, hugging him.

"Sam, who... what is...?" Her dad looked at the girl he didn't know, probably confused about her breaking protocol and allowing Buffy to see his ship, which was already in the process of cloaking again.

She turned and gestured Buffy over. "Dad, this is Buffy Summers. Buffy, this is my Dad," she explained.

"Hi," Buffy said and smiled. She knew that Buffy understood the power her cute face and innocent eyes had on people, especially older protective ones like her dad. She was sure that, just like the rest of SG-1, her dad would fold under the effect of the Buffy charm and start acting like an overly protective uncle, or in her dad's case, granddad. At least, that was what she hoped for.

Her dad, after shooting her a questioning look, bent down and held out his hand for the tiny girl with her still long and now gently curling golden blond hair. She mused for a moment on the fact that, thankfully, Buffy hadn't yet noticed the permanent change in hair coloring, but soon she'd notice the even whiter blond hair coming out at her roots. She watched as the pair shook hands. Her dad straightened back up and said, "So where is the car to take us to the base?"

"At the end of the runway, because the driver isn't cleared. We're going straight to my home, Dad; Hammond agreed to allow you as much time as you'd want off-base to visit family," she explained as she started walking down the runway.

"Great, oh... Selmak says hello, too," her dad said, obviously not wanting to let his symbiont out to speak around a little security risk like Buffy.

"It's okay, Dad; Buffy knows about the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld. That's why I brought her with me. She really wanted to see a functional space ship, and I wanted to introduce you two to her," she said.

Her dad gave her a startled look. "Has George taken leave of his senses? How could he allow this?"

"Actually, he didn't have a say. If you focus on Buffy for a moment, you'll notice she had a Goa'uld in her, at one time, but it is gone now. She's one of the girls that got kidnapped from another reality by the Brotherhood of Thoth. They tried implanting her, but her biochemistry rejected the larva," she explained.

"Sam... wait a minute, she has... Okay, we need to talk. We seriously need to talk." He glanced down at Buffy and added, "But later."

"Yeah," she agreed.

Buffy shrugged and skipped along the runway for a while, then stopped. "Are there more invisible ships here? I don't want to run into one," she asked.

"There aren't," Sam assured her. They walked in silence along the long runway, the wind from the mountains hammering them.

"It's cold! Can I run back to the car and wait?" Buffy asked.

"Sure, the driver will let you in," she agreed. Buffy nodded resolutely and set off. She saw her pick up speed, moving beyond the humanly possible. One day she'd have to ask Buffy and Janet back here with one of those police radar guns. She was curious about how fast Buffy could go if she went full out.

"Holy Hannah," her dad said as he noticed the speed of Buffy, who was running at a pace usually reserved for winning the 100 meter dash, not running several thousand meters.

"Yeah, she's amazing, isn't she?" she agreed, unable to keep from wearing an impish smile on her face.

"You can say that again. How... Is she human?" he asked.

"Completely. Janet and a team of doctors have been over her three times now and have decided to quit. There is almost no difference between her and us, and what difference there is seems to be related only to changes made by the Goa'uld, not her original human DNA. We have no idea how she can be so fast, or as strong as she is, or have such endurance, or,or,or! Buffy is a marvel in what she can do and how advanced her mind is for her age. She is a raw natural talent. A born warrior, superior already to maybe two or three Jaffa, even at her age. Jack swears if she was properly trained, she'd be almost like a one-girl SG team, except in the scientific area, and that might still change," she explained.

"Samantha Carter," Selmak said, "how could she be alive? We have examined the experiments of the Brotherhood closely, and there is absolutely no way that the mental advancements they were trying to force into the girls through DNA manipulation would leave them as anything more than ticking, cancerous time-bombs beyond even the ability of a symbiont to heal."

She found that she was still uncomfortable recounting that part of her story, even though she'd had practice explaining it all to Hammond and the guys. "I'll tell you the exact details tonight, but where I ended up there was a small supply of Ancient technology capable of the same type of genetic manipulation. It was able to repair the damage, all the damage according to Janet's opinion, from the experimentation. It did need a functional DNA sample to work from, aside from what it could synthesize on its own. I gave it mine," she said.

"What?" This time it was her father who spoke.

"Yeah, Dad, genetically at least you're looking at my first-born, so to speak. I just can't seem to do things the normal way these days," she replied, unable to keep from smirking over the realization that she could still shock her dad, even after he had become one of the usually unflappable Tok'ra.

"But..." His brow wrinkled, probably in conversation with Selmak. "Okay, I understand. So you've taken on the responsibility for her?"

"Yeah. Listen, Dad, she's stranded here. She has no relatives here, nor does she remember the ones she may've had in her home universe. It seems the Goa'uld worked hard to erase some of her memories, we don't know why. Anyway, I had mostly decided to care for her even before I used my DNA to cure her, and now I can't even imagine not doing it. Buffy is like a little, bright light in my life. A piece of a puzzle that I was missing but didn't know it, until she fell into my lap. I hope you'll get along with her," she said.

Her dad looked at the blond girl, now firmly seated in the Air Force car and waving at them through the window as they approached. "I think I can manage that," he agreed.

"Good. Oh and Dad, she doesn't know yet. About the DNA or my taking care of her permanently. I want to get the paper work out of the way first. When the adoption papers come through to the General, then I'll ask her before signing them," she explained.

"I understand, kiddo. So my youngest is going to be a mom! I didn't think I could feel any prouder of you than I did before, but I was wrong. You're doing a good thing," he said, and went to sit in the backseat behind Buffy, who had adventurously chosen to ride shotgun on the ride home. Sam got in and only hoped that the rest of her Dad's visit would be as good as its beginning.

-------------------------------

She was watching Buffy explain to her dad how they had made the bridge, in between mouthfuls of spaghetti. Thankfully, her dad had taken fine to Buffy, who it seemed was also going out of her way to be on her best behavior. "It was totally wild. The thing was huge and fast, almost like it was propelled, not flying like a bird. It was like a dive bomber. I swear. It was like it had an engine. And it was huge. I said to Sam when we first saw it that we should behead it. If we had, we could've gone back. I think Sam's boss would've liked that," Buffy explained.

Her dad looked towards her, and she nodded. "Really? How would you have beheaded it?" he asked, a bit bemused.

Buffy continued without blinking, "I would have sharpened the entrance door. Lured it with heat... maybe a fire, and then dropped the door on it when it came to snack on us. Bang! Dead dino-bird."

"I see," he replied.

"So Jacob, is it fun to live out there amongst the stars?" Buffy asked.

Her dad smiled and said, "Yes, there are really great things, wonderful people and true miracles, out there. I have already seen more during the last few years than I would ever had dreamed possible."

"Sam said that Selmak cured you of cancer. That is really nice of him. Cancer is a horrible disease," Buffy explained.

"Yeah, thankfully the Tok'ra can deal with it. Selmak is very nice and wise. Would you mind talking to him? He'll use my mouth, but it is really him talking," her dad offered.

"I guess. It would be impolite not to. I mean, he is a guest, too," Buffy said, albeit sounding a bit dubious.

"Be calm, dear girl. Hello, I am Selmak. I am happy to welcome you into our lives. I hope I am not scaring you with my strange voice," the symbiont said through her father's lips.

"It's strange, but I'm ok. Selmak, I'm wondering, how is it for you inside a body? Do you feel like a part of the body, or is it like sitting inside a shell? I think that could be scary" Buffy asked, clearly surprising Selmak.

"It depends. Usually, when all is well between me and my host, it is like sharing. It feels like a body that two minds share. Other times, it is a bit like being in a shell, but only when I have to focus my attention on other things, instead of sharing, such as when I'm healing my host," Selmak explained.

"That's nice, I guess the Goa'uld just take over. You must really be very moral to be a Tok'ra, I think. You could take over, but you wouldn't," Buffy mused, once again showing her uncommon maturity for a few moments.

"You are a very perceptive girl, I must say. However, if you'd excuse me for a while, I am rather tired. I have been piloting our vessel all the way to Earth to allow Jacob's mind sleep, and so I am most tired myself. I will speak with you again soon, Buffy," Selmak said.

Her dad leaned his head forward and it was his voice that replied, "You are a really sweet person, Buffy. Most people don't try to understand the Tok'ra. Selmak was touched. Now, enough with the heavy talk -- how about you and I see if we can't fix the television?"

"I'm sure a few slaps will help. Shouldn't Sam be doing this?" Buffy asked.

"I am her dad, I can do it," Jacob explained.

-------------------------------

He watched as his girl, his brilliant genius of a daughter, slowly slipped back from tucking in her daughter. He had wondered about the terms earlier. In principle and on paper, Buffy would show up as adopted, but really she was now Sam's girl -- through an accident of technology, more than anything else, but still, it mattered to Sam. And to be honest, the kid had a feel to her, a 'resonance' Selmak had called it; a resonance of being family. So she was his grandkid. Of course, that was all still intellectual, for now. He could only hope his heart would catch up, in time, but somehow he wasn't worried. It was already way past half-way there.

"She is down, finally," Sam said and plumped into the couch across from him.

"She reminds me of you: you always had a lot more energy than Marc. I understand, though, from our talk earlier that youth and your genes is not the entire reason. She really is something, though. She really shocked Selmak earlier. He was truly charmed, but a bit astounded. I think you're gonna like having her around. And I'll be proud to have another granddaughter," he explained.

"Oh, dad, thank you," Sam said and hugged him. It felt good, having his daughter close without world-ending danger bearing down on them, so he allowed himself to enjoy the moment. Somewhere inside, Selmak breathed a contented sigh in his sleep, feeling the peace as much as Jacob did.

"You know I was almost afraid of her at first. I had no idea, how to do things, and now... well... you know," Sam admitted.

He smiled and nodded, "We're all unsure at first. It passes sooner or later for any good parent."

-------------------------------

A little over a week later, they drove back to her place from the SGC. They had to pick up her Dad's stuff, and she had to pack a few things before heading over to Patterson. But first, she had leave Buffy. This was her first time really going off Earth to work since getting home. She still hadn't talked it all through with Buffy, and she wanted to before taking her over to Janet. She had made a more or less permanent agreement with Janet that the doctor would take care of Buffy when she was away. In fact, they had discussed having a list drawn up of people in line to take care of Buffy, in case something happened. She also liked the idea of Cassie and Buffy getting to know each other, even if Cassie was almost 4 years older than Buffy.

They walked up to the house. She barely got the door open before she became aware of the loud music blaring in her house. Her dad lifted his eyebrows and smiled. It seemed he had really gotten to like Buffy these last few days.

They entered the living room to find Buffy dancing in a skirt, while mimicking to the song pounding out from the TV. She had her back turned to the TV, but she was perfectly mimicking the dancers' movements. She guessed Buffy had seen the video a few times and decided to act it out.

"Honey!" she yelled over the noise. Buffy froze and looked stricken for a moment.

"Oh, don't be like that, you were dancing wonderfully," her dad added.

"Hi, Sam. Hi, Jacob. Hi, Selmak," Buffy said and sat down, while turning down the volume.

"Buffy, I have to go on a trip for a few days and I have to take you to Janet to stay for a while. Is that okay?" she asked. Buffy blinked, then nodded.

"I'll be back before you know it," she said. She felt strangely split inside. She wanted Buffy to take it well. But another part of her, the part that knew that Buffy had a mother and a life before her, a part that wanted her feelings for the blond girl reciprocated, also wanted Buffy to want her to stay, to need her. But she soon quelled that part of her with thoughts of Buffy feeling lonely.

Buffy rushed over and hugged her, then her dad.

-------------------------------

They were standing on Janet's porch. Cassie and Janet were in the kitchen inside, and her dad waited in their car. She crouched down in front of Buffy, who was watching her with big, wet eyes. "Sam, I don't really want you to go," Buffy said.

"I don't really want to go either, but I have to. It's my job. And my dad needs me," she replied.

"It is silly, I know, you have a duty. Duties that only you can fulfill. I wouldn't be... your friend if I didn't encourage you to do them. I love you, Sam, and I know you have to do these things, and I know doing them makes you both proud and happy," Buffy said.

She smiled at the insight of the little girl. "Buffy, before I left, the general gave me some papers today that I wanted to talk to you about, but with everything else I forgot to mention it before now," she explained.

"Is it about school? I don't have to go, you know. I'd be fine at home. Just let me go out to the mall or for sports to meet other kids," Buffy suggested.

"I think not. We have something special planned for you, Buffy; you won't get bored, I promise. No, it's about you staying with me," she said and took a deep breath. She felt almost as nervous as she had in the moments before launching into her first missions over Iraq.

"We've looked, and we can't find your family here. I know you can't really remember them well, but we still looked with all we've got. That, and some really boring science stuff, tells us that you have no family here... well, except me and my family. There is no way back to your world. And so, I wanted to offer you, if you want to stay with me and let me care for you permanently, just like Janet cares for Cassie," she said.

"You want to a-adopt me. Me. But I'm not even that nice," Buffy replied. Sam nearly went bug-eyed at that comment, unable to comprehend that Buffy felt she wasn't nice.

"Of course you're nice. You're one of the most loyal and pure-hearted persons I have ever known. You're brave and sweet. You've got a temper, but it is no worse than mine. Listen, I really want you to stay with me, Buffy. There is no other sleepyhead I'd rather wake up every morning. I see you, and I am looking at my daughter, because that is what I feel in my heart," she said.

Buffy looked at her with those big, wet eyes, and then launched herself into a hearty, nearly bone-crunching hug. "I love you too, Sam, and I'd love to be your daughter," Buffy replied.

"Good, thank you. I'll fix the paperwork when we get home," she said as the car honked.

As she walked away a small voice said, "Hey, Mom. Come back alright."

-------------------------------

"So, I made a deal with Sam that when she is off-world Buffy can come over and stay. I'm gonna make the guest room into a sort of room for her. I'm sorry I didn't get to discuss it with you earlier, but there was trouble and Sam had to leave today already," she explained to Cassie who was listening.

"So, it's something that's gonna happen a lot," Cassie replied, not sounding angry but rather surprised.

"You seemed okay with Buffy when we went shopping with her, so I hope you don't mind too much. I know it'll be a change, but honestly I think we can make it. That way, Buffy won't have to stay couped up on base every time Sam is away," she explained.

"Why would Buffy have to go to the base? Couldn't she go to someone else from the SGC?" Cassie asked.

"Well, not really. Remember I told you that Buffy was a special girl? Well, she is really very special. On the Earth she came from it was possible for certain people to become superstrong, and she was one of them. She is all human, but she can do certain things. Because of that we're afraid some unscrupulous people would try to kidnap her if she was left unwatched, which is why we will be taking care her. Finally, Buffy is a real sweetheart, and if Sam hadn't been able to take her I might have given you a little sister," she said.

Cassie flipped some of her hair out of her face just as Buffy wandered in, while Sam's car pulled away outside. She had a look of confusion on her face. "Honey, what's wrong," Janet asked.

"Sam wants to adopt me," Buffy whispered.

Janet felt a twinge: maybe Buffy didn't want to get adopted? After all, she had pretty clear memories of her mother. "Don't you want her to?" she asked after bending down to hug Buffy.

"I do, but why me?" Buffy asked.

"Because she loves you," she answered simply, and leaned back to watch Buffy's reaction. Buffy looked surprised, then thoughtful, before smiling.

"So, Buffy, you like movies, right? Mom is going in for a bit of work for a few hours, so I thought you and I could watch a movie," Cassie offered. Buffy nodded and followed her daughter into the living room.

-------------------------------

The boredom was biting into her as she waited next to the portly but kind general Hammond. SG-1, her soon-to-be adoptive mom's squad -- no, make that, her other family -- would be returning from their trip amongst the star through the Stargate, and the general had brought her to the base to see them return. She watched as the military men around her followed their set procedure as the gate was dialed into from the outside.

She had enjoyed her stay with Janet and Cassie. Cassie was really cool and a castaway from another world, like her. In fact, Cassie had it a bit harder than her. She, at least, came from an Earth, albeit a parallel one, while Cassie's homeworld had been completely different. They had talked about it and compared life stories for a bit before really becoming friends. That had happened when they had gone to the mall to shop for some new clothes for Cassie, and they had found that she had mad shopping skills and endurance. Cassie and her friend Vanessa had been really impressed, it seemed. Janet had been really cool too, but she had been really busy and only home in the mornings and evenings. Cassie said that was normal for people like Janet and her mom. She guessed she just had to accept that as a fact of life and move on.

In front of her the wormhole, as her new adoptive mother called it, became a stable, watery surface. After a few moments which she found strangely tense, the forms of SG-1 and especially Sam emerged, talking and joking like they had not just stepped over thousands of light years. She marveled for a moment, then turned and dashed for the gateroom.

She jumped down the stairs, not minding that she practically flew over the heads of several technicians, and ran over to edge herself inside the gateroom, just as the General said, "Debriefing in one hour. Get yourselves checked out and refreshed, then come to the conference room." She barreled on, sidestepping several guards before taking a flying leap into the arms of Sam.

"Umph," Sam said, as Buffy knocked the air out of her and made Sam stagger back, before the athletic woman regained her balance and closed her arms around her in a hug full of pleasant warmth.

She smiled up at the amazed looking woman. "I missed you, so the general let me wait for you here," she said.

-------------------------------

Sam leaned her head down against her, and for a moment Buffy was stunned. Sam smelled like her mom. There was no denying it. Sam smelled just right... pleasant... like home. She blinked away a tear. She might not be able to remember everything or ever be able to go home again, but in that moment it didn't really matter, because she had found a new home, a place where she belonged.

"Hi, honey," Sam whispered.

"Hi, mom," she whispered back. She smiled to herself as she felt Sam's heart skip a beat when she said it. Janet had helped her make sure all Sam's paperwork for her was finished. Back home, a nice little plaque was waiting, declaring Sam and her to be mother and daughter. She was put down again and proudly walked next to Sam.

"Teal'c, Danny, Just Jack," she turned her head and said to the chatting men that were such a huge part of her mom's life.

"Hi, halfpint," Jack said.

"Hi, Buffy," Daniel said and smiled.

"Buffy Summers, I am glad to see you well," Teal'c said and inclined his head slightly.

"So, to the Doc, then a quick talk with Hammond, and then how about I treat us to a nice steak dinner, including this little greedy one?" Jack said, while they left the gateroom.

"Awww, Jack, you're such a sweety," she said. The older man smiled and gave his workmates a triumphant look.

"Don't think that lets you show off to Danny and Teal'c. I already knew they were sweethearts before this," she said. Daniel and Teal'c smirked for a moment, while Jack gave her his 'who, me?' look, to which she could only laugh.

A half hour later she was in the women's locker room while her mom showered, happy at least that their visit to the infirmary had been routine. Janet had reminded her repeatedly that if Sam acted and felt like not-Sam, she should immediately tell someone at the SGC, because that was a sure sign of danger. "Buffy, your granddad said he promises he'll swing by again as soon as possible," her new mom called out.

She didn't remember ever having a granddad and found the thought appealingly pleasant. "Cool," she replied. "I had a good time at Janet's," she said, remembering that mothers liked to know about what you did all the time. It occurred to her that she somehow knew exactly how to inflect a lie to a mother, though. That was strange. She didn't remember being all that dishonest, nor did she like the thought of being a liar.

"That's nice, did you get along with Cassie?" Sam asked.

"Sure, we have a lot in common. She isn't that good at shopping yet, but then again, she hasn't been on Earth that long... Mom, is it okay that she told me all that stuff about Hanka?" she asked.

"Yeah, we have a couple of people resettled here on Earth, and if they couldn't talk to each other at least, I think they'd go a little mad. Besides, you've been security-cleared so that you can visit me here and be here to see me come back every once in a while. General Hammond thought I'd like that, and you already know about the gate, so it's not really a security problem on that front, either. It's the same with Cassie. In the long term it saves me and Janet a ton of paperwork every time you'd want to visit us," Sam explained as she emerged from the showers.

"Buffy, what are you doing?" Sam asked looking at her hands. She hadn't really considered what her mom's opinion would be when she had started casually flipping her mom's unsheathed knife in the air and catching it without looking. She caught the knife and looked to Sam to see what she'd say.

"You should at least always be looking. Confidence is good, but never just believe things will work; be sure," Sam said. She nodded and decided to put the knife back down into its sheath, not feeling like juggling now she was aware of doing it.

"So, you think we look good enough for a dinner?" her mom said, dressed in pants and a jacket.

"Mom, sometimes you're such a guy," she commented. Sam looked stricken for a moment. "That is not a bad thing. I think that things being either girly or boyish is just a matter of cultural bias. I like you the way you are, remember," she quickly explained. "Even though a dress every once in a while might not be totally out of place," she said.

"Scamp," Sam said with a grin, and caressed her chin, knowing she hated when people messed with her hair. Touching was okay; messing with the 'do was asking for trouble.

"Let's go," Sam said, and they headed off.

-------------------------------

She looked out over the busy area around the Air Force Academy. These last months had been tough. First, Hammond had been forced to quit and she had been turned into a modern day Oppenheimer against her will -- and she swore, if it ever happened again, she'd just resign her commission and go into the private sector as a supplier of high tech for the Air Force. Thankfully, George had been restored to his position quickly. Then there had been the entire suicide light thing, which had kept her off-world for weeks, making Buffy incredibly worried just as she was starting in her new school. And now, after she had just tried to introduce Cadet Hailey to a great life in the Air Force by mentoring her, she had been thrown into yet another life-threatening situation. She had given the General her report on the entire matter a few hours ago.

"Major Carter, Major Carter," Jennifer Hailey called out as she headed towards the other school building that she needed to visit today. She had decided to walk, rather than pick up her car.

"Cadet, it's good to see you. Can I help you with something?" she asked.

"No, ma'am, I just wanted to talk to you a little. You seemed to be off-duty, ma'am, so I hoped you wouldn't mind a bit of chat. I'd really like to hear about wormhole physics," the cadet asked, and gave her a shy smile so unlike the cold arrogance she had shown when Sam had first met her.

"Ah, okay, no problem, but we'll have to walk and talk. I am off-duty but I am visiting a VIP in that building," she replied and smiled at her allusion to Buffy.

"Sure, no problem, I am on stand-down until tomorrow anyway," Hailey replied.

A few minutes later, while animatedly talking they arrived at their destination. She thought about how lucky she had been in getting a special education plan approved for Buffy. In terms of physical education, they were mostly maintaining her combat skills and encouraging her in track and most other athletics, including gymnastics. It had been a chore to get all those teachers locked under a NDA, but in the end it had worked. On the academic front, Buffy was attending a plethora of different classes, most of them using direct mentoring or other methods of more direct subject interaction, rather than regular class learning. In fact, altogether Buffy had only three regular classes every week: French at the Academy High School, and Art and Social Studies in the Junior High close by. Most of her schooling went on at the Air Force Academy, and all of it within its security perimeter. Buffy didn't have an actual bodyguard around, but rather there was constant security monitoring, and she guessed Jack had arranged for the SGC civilian intervention people based out of Patterson to be ready to scramble to help Buffy, in addition to the campus security.

She pushed open the door as Hailey proposed a theory much like one she herself had come up with years back, about how wormholes worked. It was wrong, but before she could diplomatically explain that, Buffy called out, "Mom!"

"Major Carter," Buffy's mathematics tutor greeted her, while Buffy dashed around the table and into her arms.

"Hi, honey, you having fun?" she asked.

"Yeah, Chris was just proving to me why equations are really neat to know," Buffy said. She looked up at the hands-on experiment the young teaching specialist had set up for Buffy. Math, Chemistry and Physics were Buffy's weakest points, educationally. However, using her plans for Buffy, the girl would reach her full potential in those areas and could maybe, one day a few years from now, even take courses in it at the Academy at full-on college level. Buffy was so far ahead in many ways that she took to new things easily. But for stuff like science she needed a reason -- something tangible -- before she was even remotely interested in it.

"Then you'd better listen. There is nothing in this universe that is not somehow describable by mathematics, and equations are really important there," she intoned. Buffy gave her a look, but as a proof of progress she didn't sigh in defeat this time.

"Who is this?" Buffy asked and look at Hailey.

"Ah, Buffy Summers Carter, this is Cadet Jennifer Hailey," she explained.

"Hi, oh you're Cadet Hailey. How are you?" Buffy asked. They had talked about a censored version of her experiences with Cadet Hailey this morning.

"I'm fine," Hailey replied, making the effort to smile although clearly still confused about something.

"So, mom, why are you here?" Buffy asked.

"I heard from Captain Randolph that you had bet her you could complete the Obstacle Course in record time. She told me that I needed to give you permission first. Now, Buffy, next time you do this I'd like to know about it further ahead of time, so I can arrange for profitable side bets," she said.

"I promise... So I can do it?" Buffy looked excited.

"Of course. Just be nice about it, and set up a time you'll have to really try to break next time, so you'll have a goal ahead for the future," she suggested.

"I can do that. But you're early, I don't have PE for another ten minutes, and I really want to make another try on those equations," Buffy said.

"I'll be outside waiting," she said and with a nod to a friendly, smiling Chris, she and Jennifer slipped back outside.

"That's your kid?" Hailey asked, a bit confused.

"Yeah," she replied, feeling rather proud.

"Why does she need special education? She seems normal," Hailey said. She felt a sting of realization about how Buffy's life might look to outsiders, but decided against dressing down the Cadet about her notion.

"She has led a rather special life and needs a more practical kind of education, better fitting her personality. She would have trouble learning much more than boredom -- and maybe bad habits -- if she went to regular school. We try to give her as much normalcy as possible. But her situation doesn't allow for it to be much better than this," she explained.

"What is her situation?" Hailey asked, full of curiosity.

"I'm sorry, Buffy's situation is classified 'Need-to-Know'. You don't," she said. It was the truth, really. She had found out about that security classification a few weeks after getting back with Buffy, but much like her career and inventions, Buffy was little more than a paper ghost to the world. Like Cassie, Buffy's real capacities and all reports on her were classified: top secret, need to know. Any inquiries about her would trigger several alarms. She guessed it was yet another one of the defenses Jack and George had set up to guard her and Buffy.

Hailey gave her a wondering look but didn't say anything. They waited in silence for a few moments before she decided to break the silence by talking about the early, flawed theory Hailey had brought up. She decided to let the younger woman down easy by slowly pointing out a few flaws in the theory and offering the cadet the opportunity to rethink her theory. Thankfully, Hailey recognized the flaw in her theory and they moved on in their discussion.

A few minutes passed, and then Captain Tawny Randolph -- an Air Force officer with ties to the SGC, a personal friend of Jack, and an excellent gym instructor -- arrived. "Hi, Sam," Randolph said, after snapping off a quick salute.

"Hi, Tawny. So, I hear you're betting with my kid, now," she said with a smile. Tawny was one of those over-protective people that Jack had selected to be around Buffy, and she suspected that of all Buffy's teachers Tawny was the one that was actually just as much a bodyguard as she was a teacher.

"Yeah, well, I am sorry. I didn't want to start her on gambling, but you have to admit, Sam, your kid is incredibly cocky. I guessed that a turn through the 'torture chamber', as the cadets call it, might get her down on the ground," Tawny explained.

"I thought you had read the reports?" she asked.

"Read, yeah. Believed? Not until I've actually seen it. I know Buffy's amazingly athletic, but I am sure most of those reports were overstated," Tawny replied as Buffy exited the classroom behind her and came up to them.

"I guess I'll just have to convince ya," Buffy said.

"Fine, let's go," Tawny said and led the way.

"I guess this is my stop," Cadet Hailey intoned.

"Listen, Jennifer, I'll contact you soon and hear how things are going. And I gave you my contact numbers, so if there is anything you need to talk about, just call me. I think you could have a great future in the Air Force, and I want you to have it, if it's also what you want," she said. Hailey smiled, thanked her, and headed off. Sam jogged after Tawny and Buffy, who were waiting at the end of the corridor.

She was looking forward to seeing Buffy trounce her teacher's misconceptions.

-------------------------------

"What do we tell her?" Daniel asked a few weeks later, as they walked towards the waiting Buffy, standing at the curb of her school. She had just spent a day in the care of her PE teacher, after the electrical entity's invasion of the SGC had locked them in quarantine and nearly cost Sam her life. Due to the quarantine, more than anything else, they had been unable to bring Buffy in to see Sam during the hours when they had thought her brain-dead. But now, as she lay recovering in the infirmary, they had to figure out what to say.

He was at something of a loss. He felt good that his choice to actually shoot Carter's body had paid off, but he had been willing to kill that kid's mom for the good of the world -- and no small measure of vengeance, if he was honest. But looking at Buffy now and knowing he had almost deprived her of her mother for the second time in her short life, he felt a bit of guilt over his willingness to shoot Carter surface. "We tell her that there was an invasion by some alien, and that her mom got hurt, but will be fine soon," he said.

"No details, I agree," Teal'c commented. The big guy had become really protective of Buffy for no apparent reason, but Jack guessed it had to do with his near-adoption of the entire SG-1 team into his family, making them all people whom he protected with his life. It was somehow reassuring. He stopped the car next to Buffy, and Daniel opened the door to the back seat of his sedan so she could sit next to him. The tiny girl crawled inside and immediately buckled up.

"What's up? Is my mom alright?" Buffy immediately asked.

"Major Carter is fine, Buffy Summers. She sustained minor wounds during a crisis at the SGC. She is awaiting your arrival eagerly," Teal'c said in his rumbling voice.

"She'll be fine, right?" Buffy asked. They all nodded. She leaned back and stared out the window, suddenly lost in thought -- something he had never seen her do before. He took the hint, though, and headed straight for the SGC.

"Jack, if you don't start taking better care of her, I'll have to do it," Buffy said, but the voice sounded older, somehow, like that of a young woman, not a kid nearing eleven.

"I am sorry, Buffy," he said, giving Teal'c a confused look. Had Buffy been any other kid he would have ignored the sentiment, but when you came right down to it, it wasn't altogether impossible for Buffy to protect Sam physically. However, Sam's job, personality -- everything, in fact, that made Sam who she was -- would never allow her daughter to do so. It was a tough situation for Buffy, though; she was more mature than her age, yet still a kid. She could put down a linebacker with her thumb and index finger, but couldn't stop an alien from shooting her mom from hundreds of feet away. And worst of all for the kid, he imagined, Buffy was exactly that: a kid, locked away by both age and their sentiment from any danger, just as they all liked it. Her being safe was a focal point in Sam's life, and at least a priority for everyone else who was around her for a while. There was just something about her that made you wish that you could keep the evils of the world away from her. Maybe because you somehow knew that if she was confronted with them, she wouldn't back down; she would face them, fight them and fight to win, no matter the cost to herself.

"Good," Buffy replied, after yet another long while as they drove towards the guards.

A half hour of security checks and elevator rides later, they ushered Buffy in to see her adoptive mother. Buffy ran over to Sam at the sight of her and immediately grabbed her hands. Sam had her eyes closed, but immediately opened them and gave her daughter a tired smile. That was when he knew Sam, at least, was alright. He wondered about Buffy, though. The expression she wore told him that Buffy was not altogether happy with the current situation.

-------------------------------

The mood at the SGC was happy and upbeat. In orbit above a world far away Cronus' personal Ha'tak was now the property of the SGC, and it represented one of the biggest windfalls of technology the SGC had ever had. She was back at the SGC with Daniel to arrange things before heading back to help move it to Earth. They were having a great many problems actually piloting it. Thanks to Teal'c, they did have some marginal control over it in space, but he was having big problems handling the hyperdrive of the mothership, something which, during his tenure as Apophis' first prime, he had never been allowed to control.

"Major, I just came from a phone conference with the Commander in Chief and the Joint Chiefs. They want me to tell you -- and do pass this on to Colonel O'Neil -- 'Great work,'" General Hammond said, coming out of his office in a mood that could best be described as jolly.

"Thank you, sir," she said.

"Now, I have gone over your recommendations and conferred with segments of our science staff, and they all agree with you: we need flying lessons. I have decided to ask the Tok'ra for help in moving the mothership. Do you think they might agree to this?" he asked.

She thought it over. Her dad would probably like the idea; however, the Tok'ra were generally conservative and rather cautious when letting them near new technology. They might not like helping the SGC bring home their prize. "I think we could talk them into it, but I also think they'll ask something in return, sir," she replied.

"Fine, why don't you take the rest of the day off to be with your daughter, and then return tomorrow," he suggested.

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir," she said and headed off to Janet's, where Cassie was babysitting Buffy.

An hour later she knocked on the door of Janet's wooden house. "Coming," Cassie called out from inside.

"Oh, hi, Sam," Cassie said as she opened the door.

"Hi, Cassie, Buffy, you in?" she called out.

"Sam," she heard Buffy call out in joy, upstairs somewhere. There was a series of thumps and the sound of bare feet slapping across wood. A kid with long, gently curling hair practically dashed down the stairs and jumped the remaining 2 meters into her arms. She staggered back a little, but practice and her training kept her vertical.

"Hey, darling," she whispered into Buffy's hair.

"You are back soon," Buffy replied.

"Yeah, just a short layover, though. I am going back out tomorrow and might be gone a few more days, but after that I should be able to stay Earth-side for a long time. We picked up a nice, new toy, and there is one less Goa'uld threatening us," she explained.

"That's so cool," Buffy agreed.

"So, Cassie, I'll kidnap this little angel and bring her back tomorrow. Could you tell Janet that?" she said. Buffy practically lived just as much at Janet's place as she did at home. Sam knew that said something about her and her workload, but Buffy insisted she didn't mind, and neither did Janet and Cassie. Buffy had two rooms, now. One at her place and one at Janet's. She and Cassie were practically sisters, and Janet was starting to become just as much a mom to Buffy as Sam was -- at least if you counted time spent at home. What amazed her was that Buffy never said, hinted at, or even suggested by a single gesture or expression that she minded the whole situation. Sam thought all this over as they drove home in her car, while occasionally talking about school, a cute boy Buffy had noticed, and the fact that Buffy was incredibly proud of her first ever 'A' in Math.

They wandered inside, and she immediately set about cooking dinner, while Buffy sat at the kitchen table reading a bit of home work, quietly reciting French words.

"Oh, Sam, I realized something new today," Buffy said.

"What?" she asked, curious as always.

"Well, I realize that I am a kid and I am supposed to grow taller and stuff, but I feel like I have grown more than an inch in the last few months. That somehow feels like a lot. And my hair isn't growing out in the color it used to. It is really stark blond now, just like yours. Can hair change color that much?" Buffy asked.

She felt a lump in her throat and fear filled her mind. She had put all thoughts about that out of her mind. To her, Buffy was her daughter, physically as much as by choice. But to Buffy she was only her adoptive mother. Buffy had another mother, one she loved and remembered fondly. They had discovered that donating her DNA for repairs to save Buffy's life had affected more than Buffy's hair color. Buffy's IQ scores had gone up when they had recently retested her. She was also growing much faster than before. Genetically and medically, there had been signs according to Janet that Buffy had been destined to be tiny; not so any more. Given the addition of her DNA, those changes were likely, but she and Janet had put off telling Buffy about it. They didn't want Buffy to feel even more strange about herself. Maybe it was time to let Buffy know about some of it, though.

"Buffy, I have to explain something to you," she said, after turning down the temperature on the burner, letting the stew simmer.

"You remember when you got sick and I had to use that medical device at Winterhome?" she asked. Buffy nodded.

"Well, I never told you all of what happened. Listen, Buffy, this is really shocking stuff; you have to be ready. It will take a bit of getting used to, I know." She fell quiet until Buffy, with big eyes, nodded. "You know that how your hair is and things like that come from something in your body called DNA. Buffy, when you were sick, your DNA was falling apart because of what the Goa'uld did to you. The machine could repair most of it, but it needed fresh DNA -- human DNA -- to do it. I could only give it mine," she explained and paused.

Buffy sat with wide eyes and stared at her, then whispered, "but what does that mean?"

She felt cold; she feared Buffy's reaction. She didn't want to tarnish the other woman's memory in her child's mind, but the fact was that physically, if not mentally, Buffy was her child now. "It makes me your mother, if you look at it genetically. I know, Buffy, you had another mother, your real mother, and I will not take her away from you. What we have was made by technology, not love, and I can understand if...," but before she could finish, Buffy leaned forward and silenced her by putting a finger to her lips.

"It was love, too. You loved me enough to save my life. My other mom is dead. I love her in my heart, but I love you just as much," Buffy said with sincerity in her eyes. Sam felt like a huge stone had lifted from her heart.

"So your D-N-A is the reason my hair changed?" Buffy replied in a much lighter tone.

She quirked a smile, "yeah, and you also stand a good chance of growing up to look any man straight in the eye. I am quite tall, you know."

"Oh, I know," Buffy replied and smiled.

The rest of the evening went pleasantly, and a bit past nine o'clock she carried a conked-out Buffy up to bed, before turning in herself. She had to get an early start in the morning.

-------------------------------

The doorbell woke her up at dawn. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, while she heard her mom.. her really, truly, second mom... run to the front door. She got up and saw that it was barely light outside. Given that it was early summer, that meant it was probably really early in the morning. She walked to her door and edged it open. The doorbell at this early hour probably meant that her mom had to be at work early and would probably be off-world within a few hours. She hoped Janet wouldn't mind getting an early visitor, because her classes today didn't start before nine.

It was a bit weird having such disjointed living arrangements, but it did keep her from getting bored -- and so, amazingly, did her schooling. It was astounding that someone actually cared enough to have a special program put together for her. Through the crack of bedroom door, she heard someone speaking to her mom: "Ma'am, General Hammond requests that you and your daughter present yourself at the Cheyenne mountain base at the earliest possible moment. I will drive you there," the voice of a young man said.

"My daughter, really. I have to see some orders, Airman," her mom insisted, sounding commanding. Buffy walked across the hall and into the bathroom. She felt it would probably be a good idea to start getting ready, if she was going somewhere.

A few moments later her mom knocked on the door. "Buffy, are you in there?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," she replied over the sound of the shower.

"Good, you're coming with me to the SGC. I don't know why," her mom said.

"I heard," she replied. She heard her mom wander off, probably to pack something, or something like that.

-------------------------------

They arrived at the SGC and she routinely let the security sensors scan her. She liked that the guards looked so astounded when her hand-print came up as having more than guest access. She couldn't get into the SGC on her own, but she was allowed nearly everywhere non-essential in the complex in the company of an officer. Her mom was looking thoughtful, usually a hint that what was going on wasn't planned. Well, that wasn't really a surprise.

She nodded to Sergeant Siler as they headed for the offices of the general. "Good morning, Major Carter, Buffy," George Hammond said, breaking off his conversation with Major Daniels as they entered.

"Good morning Sir, Major Daniels," her mom said.

"Hi," she replied, not really feeling formal when it was barely 6.30 in the morning.

"Sir, may I ask why my daughter was asked here so early in the morning? As far as I know she is not a part of the SGC nor any other U.S. military agency," her mom's voice seemed to have a note of warning in it that she had heard before. It was protectiveness.

"Ah, Major Carter, I have to admit, she was not asked to join us due to any need of the U.S. military. We've negotiated with the Tok'ra tonight through several clandestine gate radio connections. They've agreed to help us with our ship, albeit reluctantly, in return for us providing cover for their evacuation of Vorash. They've finished repairs on the ship captured from the Brotherhood of Thoth, and they also want to end their use of Tanith. However, just in case, they want to have our ship provide cover and help move resources and their gate to a secure location. As an additional request, they added that they want Buffy to join you on Vorash," Major Daniels explained.

"Not happening. Buffy is not a certified gate traveler or an asset under the command of the SGC to be sent out on missions. She is a kid of ten, almost eleven, who has school and a life to lead here on Earth... In safety," her mom said, now positively bristling. She was unsure, herself. She'd rather like a trip through the gate. Gate travel was exciting and interesting. She didn't mind that part. The danger was secretly exhilarating too. Some part of her wanted -- no, craved -- that, and it occasionally reared its head and made her do strange things if she didn't have enough exercise every day. But she understood her mom, too. She didn't want to be some pawn in someone's games and she wasn't a military officer who had to obey orders.

"She and you are free to turn down what is just a request, Major. However your father and Selmak assured me that they will make sure the trip is safe and that all they want is to have Buffy identify and maybe take home certain objects found in the mothership of the Brotherhood," the general said.

"No, Buffy isn't going. I think dad and I have to have a little talk when he gets to us," her mom said. She felt a bit dejected: she had loved the idea of actually gate traveling again, but she had to bow to her mom's will. She was, after all, a good girl -- and besides, she was still very little, and that meant no one would think of giving her weapons so she could defend herself, and she liked weapons. It would've been cool to see another world again, but she did have a French test coming up and she had to study to make her mom proud. Her mom was a genius, so making her proud academically was hard, but when she had brought home her 'A' in Math yesterday her mom had gushed and made a fuss over her. She had liked that a lot.

"It is your right. I will arrange for Buffy to get to school and then over to Doctor Frasier's later," the general promised.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: 

It was many months later that Buffy was picked up at school early not by Janet but by her mom, which meant she was back early from her latest exploratory mission. She got into the vintage restored car and hugged her mom hello. "Hi, honey. I got off early today, and I even have a few days off. How does that sound?" her mom said.

Life as a Carter was good, but having her mom to herself for a few days was beyond great. "Great, so are we gonna spend a few days relaxing at home this weekend?" she asked. She knew her mom wasn't the relaxing type. Usually when they weren't playing a game, cleaning, cooking or shopping, she was puttering about with a project in her basement or in the garage where she was restoring a vintage Harley Davidson Motorcycle.

"I was thinking perhaps we could go shopping tomorrow, and then maybe Sunday we go for a hike. One of the other officers told me about a nice day-trip route that I think you'll love. What do you think?" her mom said. She had a faint recollection that she did not use to like outdoor activities, but she couldn't for the life of her remember why. These days anything that managed to tire her out was welcome.

"I like the way you think," she replied. Her mom focused on driving through the intense Friday afternoon traffic near the school and headed homeward. Buffy was feeling strange, however. It was something she couldn't quite place. It was like she was being watched -- no, studied intensely -- by something moving around inside the car. She tried pinpointing it but couldn't see or hear anything. It was driving her to distraction.

"What is it, Buffy?" her mom asked.

"I don't know. It's weird, it's like something is in the car with us, but isn't," she struggled to explain. Suddenly the feeling disappeared.

"Now it's gone," she said.

"Hmm," her mom said, looking thoughtful.

A few minutes later they arrived home and headed inside to relax. The rest of the day went quietly, with Buffy doing her homework for the weekend, while her mom puttered around, dealing with the bills and making a few phone calls to family and friends.

It wasn't until late that night she noticed that the strange feeling had returned. It seemed to move around the house, while her mom washed up and went to bed. Officially, Buffy herself had gone to bed an hour earlier, but a slight issue with a cat moving around outside had kept her from falling asleep, and now the presence seemingly moving about their house had her fully alert.

She was about to get up, when the feeling came into her room without opening her door. She knew that it couldn't be anything then, because it had passed through a closed door. It floated over to her and hovered above her. It didn't feel evil -- just foreign and strangely lonely. Suddenly it dove towards her, and she felt everything go white for a moment.

It was as though she floated in a sea of song. Any emotion, any knowledge, and almost anything in the universe seemed within her reach. She knew a place like this, but not entirely so. The other had been a place without this song or knowledge or energy, but a place filled with love and peace much like this. Then she realized that someone else was there with her, and he -- whoever he was -- was looking into places inside her head where no one was allowed, not even her anymore. She willed it to stop. The light disappeared, and she remembered nothing else before her mom woke her next morning.

"Buffy, are you up yet?" her mom called out. She opened her eyes and looked around. She felt fine, but she also remembered her rather outer-space, alien-encounter experience the night before.

"I guess," she said and got up.

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She felt Buffy had been unusually quiet and thoughtful all day. "Is something wrong?" she asked as she helped her daughter put away her new clothes.

"No... Well... You're gonna think I'm crazy," Buffy said and sat on her bed.

"I won't. I know you're not crazy. Besides, who am I to judge after the life I've led?" she admitted.

Buffy quirked an eyebrow at her but wisely made no comment about the weirdness of Sam's life. "Last night I felt that thing from the car again. It went through the house and then came to my room. It did something, went into my head, but I forced it out and then I passed out. I didn't really fall asleep last night," her daughter explained.

Sam wanted to respond with a negative or suggest that it was just a dream within the first moments of hearing the outlandish story, but was stopped by the fact that she herself had passed out on her latest mission. It was the very reason for her having a few days off. Maybe there was something. She decided to at least withhold judgment until they had found out more.

"Okay, Buffy, I believe in you. Keep an eye out and tell me about it if it comes back," she said.

A few minutes later she was out with the trash when a man said, "I'm sorry." She turned and looked at a frazzled-looking but cleanly dressed man with dark blond hair standing in the middle of the street.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I said I was sorry," he said and stepped closer. Something seemed off about him. She wasn't sure if it was his intensity or the innocence of his eyes, but something made her almost step back.

"What are you sorry about?" she asked.

He shook his head as if to say it wasn't that important. He walked closer. "Samantha, I wanted to talk to you. That's why I came, why I am here looking like this," he explained.

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about. But if you get any closer I will call the police," she said.

"I don't want that. I am upsetting you. I am sorry again. Maybe... I will come back when it's a better time," he explained.

Buffy came running out the door all of a sudden. "Mom, the feeling -- it's back!" she yelled, then stopped, staring at the weird man. "It's coming from there," she said and pointed behind her. Sam whirled around, looking at the exact spot where the man had stood before she had turned, but he was gone.

"Now it's gone again," Buffy whispered, almost seeming to disbelieve her own senses.

"It's alright, Buffy, I believe you. Something is going on," she said, and took her young daughter back inside.

A few hours passed. Sam vacillated between ignoring it all, writing it off as just another weird occurrence, and calling up the SGC to get a Code three team to her house. But she had done neither. Buffy was in the backyard, playing with a boomerang Sam had bought for her after much begging earlier in the day. "Is this a better time?" the voice of the man from before asked, just as she was about to begin dinner.

She turned to find him on the other side of her kitchen counter. "What are you doing in my house? Get out!" she hissed, thankful that Buffy was outside and could easily get away.

"I won't hurt you," the man promised.

"If I was you I'd be more afraid of me hurting you," she promised, feeling her heart pumping as the adrenalin flooded her body.

"You and I can do neither," the man said and stepped through her counter. She backed to the left and away. This was not a crazy man but an alien. And this one was a bit too close to home, so to speak.

"Listen, I don't know what you want from me and my daughter," she said.

"I want nothing... Well, no, except, well... I was all alone on Velona... the world you passed out on. I am still sorry about that. I was so lonely... And then you came and you were right, your mind was strong, and I thought I could finally relate to someone, share with someone, be understood. I had been so alone for so long," he said, while all she noted was Buffy standing in the door staring at them with a strange look on her face.

"Ah, Sam, and then I followed you through the Chappa'ai and found this world. So complex so interesting. It was you I came to be with, though. Your mind is the one that I can relate to and through you I also found her. " He turned and looked at Buffy, who neither blinked nor flinched as he smiled towards her.

"Your daughter, a being of such beauty physically, soon mentally, but oh, Sam, if you only knew the Angelic radiance of her soul you'd weep as I do when I dare look on it," he said and stared at Buffy with an almost possessive look of reverence, different from the emotion she couldn't quite place which was present on his face when looking at her.

"I don't care, I want you gone. I don't want some alien running around here..." She said.

"If you call in someone to capture me I'll just hide. I passed through your base with ease. I can remain here indefinitely, invisible and incorporeal, until their suspicions fade. I mean you no harm. I was lonely and I came. Please let me stay a little while. Let me have some company for a while; then I will gladly return to my exile on Velona again," he said.

"I'll have to talk to my daughter about it," she said and walked over to Buffy. She knelt next to her.

"What do you think? I know he can do what he says. But if we let him stay... We don't know what he wants," she whispered.

"I think we can trust him. Look, I hate that he had us running around and I don't like that he made me pass out, but look at him, mom. He is nearly in tears. I can feel it in the air. He is no liar, I doubt he knows how to. I think we should at least try. And maybe he can help us, help Earth even," Buffy whispered back.

"You're right," she said after looking at the man. He had no real ability with subterfuge. All his emotions showed on his face.

"Alright, you can stay a few days," she offered, while thinking about how weird her life had really become after reading that brief on the Stargate back in the early nineties. Not only was her dad now in a symbiosis with a Tok'ra, her daughter was a superhuman girl from a parallel reality, and now it seemed she had an incorporeal gentleman caller hovering around in her house.

"Thank you. I am sorry for trying to share my mind with you both without asking. I want to try again some time when we can be sure that it won't hurt either of us and when you want it," he offered.

"Excuse me, mister, but what is your name?" Buffy asked.

"My name is Orlin, Buffy; I am sorry for not saying it earlier. I am still not used to having to share information again verbally. All my communications have been mental for ages," Orlin replied.

"Ok, cool," Buffy replied and, again taking enormous changes in stride, she slid back outside to play with her boomerang again.

"A wonderful child," Orlin remarked

"There aren't two of those," she agreed with a proud smile.

"You have no idea," he said.

She turned and fixed him with a questioning stare.

"I am sorry, but as I said I have seen Buffy's soul -- not her past, not her mind, but her soul. I have never seen anyone, even among us, the Ascended, that has a soul as pure of purpose and as forged by the fires of life as that girl. She is a being of destiny. More than that I could not determine," Orlin explained.

"I see... Orlin, how are we going to do this?" she asked.

"Ah, Sam, do not worry: I will try to make things as easy for you both as I possibly can," he replied.

After a few moments he added, "However, if you don't mind, I think I would be able to better explain things to you if you'd allow me to share with you."

She shook her head. "I am not ready for that yet. Let me get to know you a bit better, first," she admitted.

"Alright," Orlin replied, trying to sound happy, but disappointment shone through in his expression.

--------------------------

"Sir," she called out the next day as she ran down the halls of sublevel 28 trying to catch up to Jack. She wanted to talk to him. Her orders were clear. She had to report Orlin. She wasn't sure that was fair to the alien, but she had to. It was her duty.

"Carter, do you understand this thing?" he asked, gesturing towards her with the puzzle that was his latest task in their ongoing, multi-year puzzle game.

"Yes, but I won't help you," she said. "Jack, there is something really important you and I have to talk about."

He turned towards her. She gestured for him to step aside in the corridor. "Jack, what if, hypothetically, an alien had followed us back from 636 -- you know, the planet I passed out on -- and it claimed to be able to become invisible and intangible. If we confronted it, it would hide. I could then try and retrieve more information from it about the device, before I alert a Code 3 team to have them handle things," she explained.

Jack looked shocked for a moment. "Are you nuts?"

"No, sir. I mean, it is just theory. Just let me handle it for now. I would just need clearance from a commanding officer," she replied.

"Are you sure this is theory?" he said after studying her for a while.

"I am sure, he would be harmless... And besides, he really could come and go without our say-so, anyway," she explained.

"Good, then I give you theoretical permission to do it, but try and keep things impersonal," he said and waved her off, almost running to the bathroom. She smiled at her timing.

--------------------------

That evening, with Buffy already in bed, she sat with Orlin.

"I am glad you decided to not tell anyone except your friend about me... Sam, I... I'd like to try the sharing again with you," he said.

"I don't know," she hesitated.

"I am sure I can make it work if the human I try it on is receptive. Sam, I'd never, ever hurt you, I swear... I think I... " Orlin said before looking at her with hope in his eyes.

"Alright, let's try it," she agreed, feeling a bit nervous. Orlin was so honest she knew that he was infatuated with her. But she wondered if it was really much more than the reactions of a lonely creature to the first person he had seen in an age.

The room went dazzlingly bright as he showed his true shape. "Now relax, open your heart and mind to the possibility of an existence not governed by the rules of science which you so love," he whispered.

She tried but was unsure if she even knew how to do that.

"Relax," he whispered.

Suddenly she felt like she was swimming in a sea of white, of pure emotions and love. "Oh, my god," she said back in the real world.

--------------------------

"So, what are you doing?" Daniel wandered into her office looking as overworked as she felt. She actually rather wanted to get home and be with Buffy, and maybe -- if she was totally honest with herself – Orlin, too.

"It seems that, given your translation and the reports of SG-16, the Pentagon is pressuring the General to test the weapon before we figure out a way to copy it," she said.

"Do you think we can even get it running?" he asked.

"Well, honestly I think I have figured out a way. If I create an overload in a Naquadah reactor that has been interfaced with the weapon and fed the overload into it, it should in theory be able to perform its function -- at least for a while. However, the overload would be fairly dangerous. Any malfunction or failure could lead to the charge being unable to escape the reactor. The ensuing explosion would be devastating," she explained.

"So, if you do it, you'd better be sure that the weapon is to be fired and that everything works," Daniel said.

"I am trying to make it safer, but the General hasn't been given a lot of time to get things working, which again hasn't left me or SG-16 much time for building any sort of buffer or improved safeties," she said.

"That weapon is pretty powerful according to the accounts. They used it to defeat the Goa'uld, but for some reason that civilization was destroyed," Daniel suggested.

"You think we should leave it alone, at least until we understand all the consequences?" she asked.

"Yeah," Daniel agreed.

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"You two are right on time," Orlin said as they entered the house.

"Hey, Orlin," Buffy -- as usual, the first to accept radical change -- greeted him happily. She had apparently had a great day at school.

"Dinner is ready," he said and gestured towards a nicely set table.

"Yay," Buffy said with a smile.

They sat down to eat when it occurred to her that incorporeal beings couldn't cook. "How?" she asked and looked at the table.

"I think things have been going well between us. Don't you?" Orlin asked.

"I guess, but really, there is no 'us', Orlin," she replied, while Buffy watched them intently with a pixie smile on her lips.

"It is possible for my kind to take, or rather retake, human form, considering that was how we started," he explained.

She looked at Buffy. "We should talk about that later," she suggested.

--------------------------

She sat with Orlin. They had discussed his race, Oma Desala, what he had done and what it meant, when she asked, "About Velona. The weapon, it came from you?"

"Yes. Well, I communicated the knowledge. They saved themselves," Orlin said, sounding sad.

"But not for long," she egged him on. This was what she really wanted to know.

"It was a horrible mistake. Shortly after defeating their enemy, they started planning interstellar conquest using the technology I gave them... My people had to step in at that point," Orlin explained.

"They destroyed the planet," she said in shock. "Isn't that going against that whole non-interference thing you told me about earlier?"

"They as a collective decided to correct my mistake to prevent a disaster. They destroyed the population and banished me there to suffer for my mistake as my punishment," Orlin said.

"But you couldn't have known," she defended him.

"I broke the rules, rules that are there for a reason... But I am apparently not the only one," he said, hinting at the alien Daniel had met on another world.

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"Sir, we have something coming off the surveillance of the Summers kid," Raoul said as he entered his office without knocking. He turned his chair and looked at his Hispanic agent.

"What's new?" he asked. He was looking over the schedule for the upcoming transfer of a very secret parcel between Russia and a friendly U.S. corporation. It was a lot more important to him than the ongoing adventures of a tiny superhuman that he couldn't have just yet.

"Colonel Simmons, sir. Major Carter is harboring an alien," Raoul said.

"Really," he said and finally found an interest. "Let's see what we can do with that." He smiled as the possible scenarios ran through his mind.

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She had just come out of a meeting. She had managed to convince the General to give her two weeks to discover if the weapon on Velona could be the cause of the Velonans' demise. She knew that it was, but she had no chance of proving it unless Orlin could help her. From what he had said, she suspected that a reactivation could cause, at minimum, the death of SG-16, and maybe even draw the ire of Orlin's race to Earth.

"Major Carter," Simmons stepped up to stand next to her in the corridor.

"Sir," she greeted him.

He leaned in and whispered, "Stop acting against me. I could make life difficult for you."

Before she could retort, Simmons walked on, looking and acting like nothing had happened. She felt anger in her mind. How dare he act like that towards her!

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She arrived home later that day and found Orlin and Buffy playfully trying to bake. That seemed to involve a lot more flour than she had expected, especially on their clothes and faces. She dropped her bag against the side of the counter and asked, "Who sneezed in the flour?"

"He did," Buffy suggested. Orlin just chuckled and started tickling Buffy.

"Really? Really?" he asked while tickling her.

Buffy allowed him to continue until finally saying, "Alright, I give. I started a little food fight of a sort," Buffy admitted.

"Better. Don't lie to people," Orlin said with a smile.

"What were you making?" she asked.

"Were? Are," Orlin explained, and moved aside to reveal a huge stack of pancakes with another batch of batter getting ready.

"Oh, and he made us gifts," Buffy said and lifted a large, beautiful, blood red gem hanging from a silver locket out from under her dress. Then she pointed at another, an emerald locket on a gold chain, lying on the kitchen table.

"I hope you like it. Emerald, that is your birthstone, right?" Orlin asked.

"It's real," she said, while examining the extravagant gift.

"Of course. I made it, as well as the garnet for Buffy... You wouldn't believe what you can make with common elements and household items... Well, you do need a new microwave," Orlin said. She wondered if she could learn how to do this -- maybe with diamonds, so that she could use it on electronics.

"Thank you," she whispered, almost feeling compelled to kiss him in gratitude.

--------------------------

It was late at night again. She was again seated with Orlin in her living room. "Orlin, what will happen if we try to activate the weapon or learn about it?" she asked.

"The others will stop you," he said immediately.

"Even if it is only to learn how to defend ourselves?" she asked.

"How can you or they be sure that your people won't turn around and do the same as the people of Velona?" he offered.

She wanted to argue, she really did. The Tok'ra, the Tollan, and now Orlin's people had all said it. She believed that they were right. That they should reverse engineer and completely learn, rather than scavenge. But the times were desperate, and so it was their best option.

"I guess I can't say we'll be better than that," she said.

"I have read your recent history. The creators of your Atom bomb also believed that the weapon would only be used to create peace. I can't take the chance. I can't watch yet another civilization die because of my mistake," Orlin said.

"Why didn't you destroy the weapon?" she wondered.

"I thought I had, but you really are brilliant. I never figured you'd be able to replace the power supply," he explained.

"I have to find a way to stop the test," she said.

"But how? You have no proof, except exposing me," he said, then seemed to realize something. "No, no, no. I've done it again. If you expose me they will take and pressure me until I reveal more secrets, worse secrets. I... We have to find another way," he whispered to himself.

"I'll try to think of something... Damn, I don't like the idea of faking my results," she admitted, "but I am pretty sure it's the best solution."

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It was a few days later when she walked into the office of General Hammond.

"Major," he said, looking a bit angry -- which was not a good thing, especially as it looked like it was directed at her.

"They're going ahead with the test," Jack said.

"But sir, it has only been nine days. You said I would have 14 days," she said. She was still puzzling over how to make irrefutable false evidence of the weather effects. She looked at Jack and Simmons. They looked like something else was going on, as well. Buffy would've said they had 'but-face'.

"I was overruled," the General answered.

"Yes, nine days. And I daresay you haven't been doing a bit of research into Weather Phenomena," Simmons said with annoyance in his voice, before dropping several photos on the desk. They showed her with Orlin, Buffy with Orlin, and Orlin alone -- all inside her home.

"And would you like to explain these purchases?" he asked and dropped a list containing several strange items charged to her credit card, such as raw titanium, fiber optic cable, very expensive industrial capacitors.

"You have been watching. You've invaded my privacy. The privacy of my child," she said and noted that her tone was getting a bit too close to disrespectful, but she was bordering on not caring.

"Yes, and with good reason," Simmons said defensively, which made her wonder if that hadn't been going on much longer than just since Orlin's arrival.

"The Pentagon. I'm sorry, Major. I expressed my anger and disappointment to the President," the General said, and she noticed there was something dark in Jack's look. He shared her suspicions.

"We have tapes of your conversations with the alien," Simmons said.

"I was acting under orders," she replied and looked over at Jack.

"Huh?" Simmons asked.

"Would you like to tell us what you mean by that?" Simmons asked, after noticing the General's equally perplexed expression.

"She was working under my orders. I thought it couldn't hurt, after she told me how it could turn invisible and was incorporeal," Jack explained, apparently having caught on quickly.

"I am not here to lay blame, Colonel. If she was acting under orders, that's a load off my mind. However, my visit here is just a courtesy. I am here to lead the operation to capture and detain the alien," Simmons explained.

"As we speak, a Special Forces team is surrounding your home," he continued.

"What?" she very nearly yelled, "Buffy is home by now. If you think I will allow you to endanger my daughter just so you can look good and have your commandos drag him out, you're wrong."

"Calm down, Major, I had no idea your daughter would be home, of course. I am sure we can arrange something," Simmons said with a bit too sardonic a smile.

"You bet we will. We're joining your operation," Jack explained.

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"What's the situation?" Simmons asked as they arrived. She hated the very idea of armed men surrounding her house with Buffy and, if she had to admit it, Orlin inside.

"The target is inside, but he has failed to respond to our call for him to surrender," the Special Forces commander replied.

Jack looked at her, noticing her expression. They both knew that the next step would be to move in. With live weapons. She intensely disliked the very thought. "You want him alive, right? Why don't you let Sam go in? She can convince him to surrender," Jack told Simmons.

"The place is sealed off?" Simmons asked the commander.

"Yes, sir," he answered.

"Fine, she can go, but she's only got a few minutes," Simmons replied. Jack gestured for her to move out.

She crouch-walked to her house, then moved past the two officers at the door. She opened it slowly and entered the darkened hall. She slid inside, only to hear Orlin suggest matter-of-factly, "Close the door behind you, Sam."

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She lowered the boomerang as her mom entered. Orlin had been really busy, so she had decided to guard the house in the meantime. They were surrounded, but she was fairly certain she could destroy the surrounding forces. Her mom and Orlin talked for a few moments, then as her mom passed she heard, "Buffy, go to your room and wait for me... And, Buffy, trust no one except Jack of the people out there," her mom cautioned.

She nodded, but as she headed for her room she considered what her mom and Orlin were doing. She had the distinct feeling that something bad was going to happen. She went inside and sat on her bed. She listened and heard a guy outside her window. Suddenly there was a hum from the basement and the lights went out. She rose, determined to go down there no matter what her mom had said.

She stopped as there was a loud crash. Her window shattered and a man loomed with a weapon ready. He fired his weapon at her. She felt a sting and then intense pain as she shook uncontrollably from the taser darts. They did, however, not stun her. She whipped her hand down and easily brushed off the darts.

"Well, gosh," the soldier said, just moments before her fist launched him across the garden into the fence, which promptly broke.

She was in danger. They were here to attack not just Orlin but her too. That much she thought was obvious. She grabbed her boomerang and the baseball bat she had gotten months back but never really revealed to her mom because of her mom's strange issues with her having weapons. At least the bat looked innocuous enough to pass casual inspection. There was a movement in the hallway.

She hefted the bat and swung its aluminium length sideways at the door. It hammered through the wood and into the leg of the advancing soldier. She heard his pained yell. She jumped high and grabbed the top of her closet. She hoisted herself onto the top and waited. The door was pushed open. An assault rifle entered first. She waited patiently. She saw someone being dragged out of view while another soldier entered. She needed to leave the room and find a wider area to fight in. Her goal was to defend the house and avoid getting kidnapped. She realized that she had to fight conservatively; she wasn't in this battle to kill or even seriously hurt anyone. A few bruises and knockouts would be the most she could be allowed. These guys were only acting on someone else's orders.

The soldier with the assault rifle was still scanning the room. Her guess was that, aside from the other one assigned to remove the guy she had hit with the bat and the one outside, he was alone. That was a bad move. He was wearing a helmet and a vest, which meant his arms or his legs were her best targets. Given her position, his arms were the only viable ones. She launched herself from her perch while swinging the bat out in front of her as soon as he stepped into the right position.

With another pained groan and a clatter, he dropped his rifle. "Hostile spotted," he ground out. She rose from her landing and gave him a spinning kick to the gut, hoping his vest would take the brunt of it. He flew into the wall and sank down, also unconscious. She turned towards the door. She expected that someone was covering the corridor with a rifle or a stun weapon of some sort. But there could be many. She picked up the soldier's rifle and tossed it into the hall, while running immediately after it.

There was a strange noise and a hole was opened in the wall as a series of bullets followed the path of the rifle. She jumped low and put her weight against the loose carpet on the wooden floor. She slid on it, practically into the lap of the firing soldier. Before he could do more, she pushed the rifle up and gave him a solid upper-cut to his rather wide jaw. Before he flew back, she pushed her other hand against him, sending him across the room and out the door to the garden.

"Buffy, stop!" Jack commanded. She stopped and slowly turned as three cones of light were shone on her from the other end of the corridor near the basement stairs. She stared at him, trying to determine if it was really him and he was still trustworthy. Her mom had said to trust him, but she had to be careful anyway.

"Jack, what is going on? Someone smashed through my window and shot me with a taser," she asked.

He looked surprised, then glared at the balding man next to him. "I don't know, but I am sure we'll find out when I interrogate him," Jack promised.

"Kiddo, this house is going to be a bit crazy for now. How about you and I go sit in my car, while things get sorted out?" Jack said.

"Sure," she replied, but remembered to go get Mr. Gordo before leaving. She had a sense that sometimes if you left him he disappeared, so he went nearly anywhere with her.

The wounded soldiers were being cared for outside, but neither Orlin nor her mom were anywhere in sight.

They got into Jack's military jeep, and she waited until they were alone before asking, "Jack, where is my mom?"

"I am not sure, kiddo. It seems that alien--" he said.

"Orlin," she injected.

"Orlin... had built some sort of mini-stargate in your basement," he explained.

"Oh, I knew about that. Did it work? He said he was worried about the power requirements," she said. Orlin had loved telling her about things, even things she had no real chance of understanding.

"It worked. Do you know where he wanted to go?" he asked.

"Yeah, back to Velona. He told me that if you guys messed with some device there, his people would come and wipe us out, so he had to go and stop you. Another military mess," she said, and felt an ancient pain as if something like this meant something important to her.

"Another?" he queried.

She waved him off, "I don't know why I said that either... Jack, I'm sorry for hurting those soldiers, but they attacked us, and we had done nothing."

"Oh, for crying out loud. It's okay, Buffy, we should have realized that you of all people would defend yourself. And I have the sneaking suspicion that the attack on you wasn't coincidental." He muttered the last part as he stared out of the windscreen at the black-haired man directing the removal of Orlin's inventions.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now we wait for your mom to come back home," he replied.

"I guess she went with him," she said.

"I am sure she didn't mean to abandon you," he offered, reassuringly.

"Oh, I know. She went because she had to. She had to make sure Orlin had a chance to save us. I know her too, Jack," she replied.

"I suck at waiting," he said.

"Me too," she agreed, while wondering what he wanted to do.

"Let's go see what the General can do for us," he said, and put the car in gear.

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The next day her mom drove her back to their house, which was already fixed to look like nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened there. Her mom was a little sad. She guessed that since Orlin hadn't returned he had either stayed or died. She felt a little sad about that, too.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"He saved us, then his people allowed him to re-ascend to his incorporeal state. He told me to tell you that he will watch over us as best he can, and that you should never be afraid of your nature... Buffy, he also said that you could become our greatest hope... Do you know what he meant?" her mom asked.

She thought it over, but couldn't for the life of her figure out how one girl -- superstrong or not -- could make that much of a difference. "I don't know. I mean, I am special, but not that special," she finally said.

"You're that special to me. That is all you need to be," her mom said with a fierce look in her eyes.

--------------------------

A few weeks later, they were preparing for Christmas. Daniel had talked her mom into arranging an SG-1 Christmas party, and she had immediately loved the idea, too. Now they were big with the party-planning. Janet and Cassie were coming. Teal'c was the honored guest, and they were holding it at Jack's place, because he had the biggest house.

But that was in a little while, and right now the weather was turning cold and windy with the season while they were warm and cozy at Janet's place to celebrate Cassie's birthday. Well, the guest of honor was missing in action. She was with her almost-but-not-yet-boyfriend out on the porch. Buffy knew she had the hots for him. Cassie had talked about him all the time these last few days. She had been staying with Janet and Cassie, because her mom had been off-world for some negotiations that hadn't gone well.

"Wow, those are a load of candles," her mom said, and gave her a goofy smile.

"We could make one like that for you on your birthday," she said.

Her mom grinned, then commented, "Not without calling the fire department first."

"So who is the boy?" her mom asked, just as the lights in the house blinked.

She heard a thump and guessed something had happened on the porch. "Cassie!" she yelled and ran.

"Somebody, help!" a young male voice yelled outside.

Cassie lay on the porch, looking pale and sick. "What happened?" Janet demanded, while examining Cassie. Her mom drew the boy away and started questioning him. Her stature and well-trained, almost muscular, body seemed to intimidate him. She judged from his expression and way of talking that he had no idea, and he claimed he had just kissed Cassie before she fainted while the lights flickered.

"Call the base hospital," Janet said.

"I'll do it," her mom said, and headed inside. The boy seemed to consider what to do. She walked up to stand next to him.

"It'll be all right; they're calling an ambulance right now. I think you could go now, if you wanted to," she said.

"You're so calm. Aren't you her sister?" he asked.

"Not really, more like a semi-adopted one," she explained. She had spent nearly as much time with Cassie as she had with Sam or Janet in her time on this world. She was worried, but she also had faith in Janet and Sam. If something could be done, they'd do it.

"I have faith in them," she said.

"Oh... You think it's alright if I go?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, and a few moments later, although haltingly, he made off. He seemed like a nice guy, but he probably wasn't the love of Cassie's life -- he seemed too unconcerned, although of course that could change. She wondered sometimes how she understood these things so well, because she couldn't remember having a boyfriend herself, and she was way too young anyway. Although, according to her papers, her assigned eleventh birthday was coming up in January.

"Buffy, you're coming along, okay?" her mom said. She knew her mom wanted to reduce her number of visits to the base. It had changed after the soldier who had tried to shoot her had been interrogated. Everyone had been really weird for days after that. Her mom, Jack, Daniel, even Teal'c had been home or visited her a lot, and at school an Airman was now present during all her classes -- albeit outside the classroom most of the time.

"Cool, you think I can swing by and visit Danny and Big T?" she asked using her private nicknames for the two. She had sworn to never use the nickname when talking with Teal'c, but with Daniel she did often and against all protest. She liked the rest of SG-1 but that didn't mean she couldn't tease them.

--------------------------

The time at the SGC turned out to be stranger than expected. After a few hours of talking to Daniel, going to the mess hall with Teal'c and visiting Jack's really messy office, she had finally been told to go sit with the feverish Cassie, while her mom and SG-1 went to Cassie's old homeworld and tried to find out more about what was wrong with her. No one had deigned to tell her any details, though.

She walked into the shielded medical observation room. Cassie was sitting, staring at the room behind the glass... the empty room behind the glass. A monitor next to her was fritzing occasionally. Buffy scooted onto the foot end of the bed next to Cassie. "Hey Cassie," she said by way of greeting.

Cassie obviously had a fever and looked very sick. "Go away, midget," Cassie commented. It was their private joke and current greeting. Although she hadn't smiled when she said it.

"So you're not okay. What is going on? Nobody told me anything," Buffy said.

"I need to go into the forest. Then I'll be okay... I need to go home and visit a holy place," Cassie tried to explain.

She wanted to scoff at that, but as always something inside told her that she should never discount that there was more between heaven and earth than air. "Ok, why won't they let you?" she asked.

"They think it's a superstition. Sam and Janet are like that," Cassie whispered.

"Yeah, I get that. Oh, well, maybe they'll find something, and if they don't and you still want to go, maybe I can help you," she said.

"You couldn't... you wouldn't," Cassie whispered, realizing what she meant.

"For a friend, a sister in my heart, I'd walk into hell itself," she said and knew that she meant it. She wasn't sure she could actually get to the Stargate with Cassie without hurting people she liked, and worse, she couldn't activate the gate computer without a proper palm-print. Of course, the person who opened the gate needn't be conscious.

"Don't say that, Buffy. You're important, too: you can't just throw yourself away for someone else," Cassie said, almost whispered, as she seemed to weaken again.

"The most important thing a person can do is to do something for someone else. It doesn't matter that I am special, if I can't use what I have to help," she explained fervently.

Janet walked in. "Buffy, although what Cassie's got isn't contagious, could you do me a favor and stay at a little distance?" she asked.

"Why? I... " She paused, realizing it was for Cassie's sake, and shut up, while walking back out of the room. Janet was too preoccupied to realize that Buffy had just gone roaming.

--------------------------

It was great fun slipping in and out of different rooms and finding all the strange stairs and passages that took her all around the complex. She even found a crawlspace just big enough for her that allowed her to look into the control room. She rested there for a while, although a large part of her hated the dirty air-duct she was in. It was from there she heard SG-1 return through the gate and talk to the General about finding Nirrti's lab.

That meant no religion, just more lies from the Goa'uld. She felt sorry for Cassie. She decided she'd better slip back into the storage room she had come from and brush herself off.

She crawled into the storage room a few minutes later and brushed herself off before leaving and heading in the direction of her mom's lab. She was barely down the hall when she noticed something weird. It was a feeling much like she had gotten from Jacob. It was like with Sam and Teal'c but stronger. It was the feeling of a Goa'uld. They had been infiltrated somehow.

She needed to protect her family and her friends now. She needed a weapon first. A Goa'uld wouldn't pay much attention to her until she showed her abilities, so she wouldn't have many chances. She needed some sort of weapon that she could conceal. A zat would do fine, but they were mostly locked away in the secured armories.

--------------------------

"Where's Buffy?" Sam asked as she and Janet left the meeting with the General. They had discussed their findings and how Daniel had solved the puzzle of what was affecting Cassie.

"Err, I sent her to the... Come to think of it -- oh, God, Sam, I don't know. I was so focused. I don't know where she is," Janet nearly yelled in shock.

Sam felt a moment of panic come over her, then remembered that the SGC was her base. Everyone here knew of Buffy, and none of them would hurt her... Unless of course the NID tried again. They had been so shocked during the interrogation of the soldier that had tasered Buffy. He had been ordered to take her and hand her over to an NID operative in a vehicle, before making it look like Orlin had taken her or done something to her. Jack had upped security on Buffy, and she had swept their home for bugs twice, each time finding a few.

She pushed down her fear and went over to the nearest guard. "Sergeant, have you seen my daughter recently?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am, I saw her earlier today running around looking for something. But that was at least an hour ago," he admitted.

"Which way did she go?" she asked. He looked around and pointed down a corridor. She went in that direction, leaving the apologetic Janet to her business. They each had a daughter to look after.

--------------------------

"Did you find her?" Janet asked as she walked back in to Cassie's room.

"No, but a lot of people said they had seen her no more than a few hours ago, then nothing. I checked with security: she is still here -- in fact, no one has left the SGC levels for 3 hours, only gone between the levels," Sam explained.

"Security alert, level 28 corridor B," the general's voice declared over the radio. She broke into a dead run and hoped that it didn't involve Buffy in any way.

She came upon the scene and was surprised to find a single Airman surrounded by Jack and several other guards. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Airman Kenneths was just about to explain that," Jack said and gave the soldier the evil eye.

"Sir, I thought I had lost my keycard, but I found it here... I had dropped it. I am sorry, sir, but protocol dic..." Jack broke the soldier off and held up a finger.

"Ah, come with me, Airman. Let's go talk to the General about triggering alerts without looking around first," Jack said and led him off, leaving her with all the other guards.

"By chance did any of you see my daughter?" she asked.

"Yeah, I saw her head to the infirmary when I ran here," a guard explained.

She felt a rush of relief throughout her body and rushed off to find her wayward daughter. It was time to impress on Buffy the necessity of telling people where she went again.

She found Buffy sitting outside Cassie's room, her book-bag at her feet, idly reading a novel. "Honey," she said and embraced Buffy, who seemed glad to see her... although as she rose again Buffy seemed to study her and frown a little for a moment.

"You must always tell someone where you go. This place is huge and you could get lost," Sam intoned, deciding to spare Buffy the news that someone might try to kidnap her.

"I thought I did... I guess Janet must not have heard me. Oh well, no harm done," Buffy said and looked calmly back down at her book. Sam wanted to say something to berate the young girl, but decided she was just glad to have her back safely and the lectures could wait for another time.

"Well, let's see how Cassie is doing before I get you home," she said. Buffy looked instantly upset at that.

"I... I can't leave. Not now. Mom, Cassie could be dying. Please, I just want to stay and make sure she's going to be alright. Please, I promise I'll be good. I can just sleep in Teal'c's cot, or in one of the guest rooms instead. If you take me home, you're not gonna stay with me, and I'll be all alone and I'd only have Cassie's problem on my mind," Buffy rambled.

It seemed Buffy and Cassie had gotten as close as she had hoped they would. At least that meant that her stays at Janet's had been pleasant so far. "Alright, I'll go clear it with Jack, but then you're going straight to bed. It's almost eleven, you should be fast asleep," she said and headed off. She stopped and faced Buffy, "And Buffy, stay right there until I get back."

--------------------------

It was already evening the next day again, and there had been neither hide nor hair of any Goa'uld. She watched as her mom tried to reason with Cassie, who had now decided she was becoming superhuman with her newfangled telekinesis to her credit. And if Cassie was getting better, then it was only at denial. It was so obvious that the fever was killing her. She wished she could just pummel some sense into Cassie, but it seemed unlikely that would work.

She watched her mom leave -- probably to talk to Janet, because she hadn't looked in her direction as she left. Buffy rested her eyes a little, not really tired but deciding that looking asleep would probably make people leave her alone longer and make it even surer that no one wondered what was filling her book-bag, aside from books. She was a bit sorry about tricking that Airman yesterday so that she could get into an armory and get her own Zat, which now rested in her book-bag.

As she rested she suddenly felt it again. It was the same as last time. Too strong to be a residue of a larva and feeling somehow evil, for lack of a better word. It was somewhere in front of her, but further than the window. Which meant in the room with Cassie. She opened her eyes and saw no one. It was invisible. Not good.

Something -- experience, maybe -- told her to observe carefully through her barely opened eyes. She saw a folder get opened on the table next to Cassie. She reached into her bag to her left and grabbed the Zat. She would only get one chance.

Her hand closed around the weapon and her finger reached the trigger. She slowly lifted a foot and hammered it into the window, while throwing herself forward and drawing her weapon. Before the glass had even landed on the floor she was firing once, twice, three times, in a pattern from Cassie's bed towards the door. She got lucky on her third shot and grazed her target.

A female figure screamed in pain, and what looked like a cloak flickered for a moment, revealing her enemy. There was a rush of something in the air and the remaining glass exploded into the observation room. An alarm started blaring.

She fired again, this time downing her opponent. She ignored the broken glass and the feeling of minor cuts all over her neck and hands. She rolled forward into Cassie's room and rose, keeping her weapon pointed at the now visible Goa'uld. She looked Indian or something. Buffy idly brushed glass off herself.

Two airmen advanced into the room, Zats drawn. They targeted her first, probably because of her weapon.

"Drop it," the first one commanded.

"Not until you secure her. And watch it: she's a Goa'uld," she said, finding a clipped tone in her vocabulary, as if she was used to commanding troops. She noted that both Airmen twitched slightly towards the Goa'uld before ignoring her.

Jack arrived next, his gun drawn. "Buffy, put that down!" he yelled before he did anything else. He had some sort of really weird reaction whenever she picked up a weapon.

"Not until you get her in cuffs," she insisted. Jack turned and whistled, apparently quite happy about her captive.

"Get that one into holding," he commanded and went over to take the Zat, while the guards did their job.

"You took her out?" he asked.

"I sensed her earlier, but I wasn't sure until I felt her again. I mean, you have both Mom and Teal'c here -- I couldn't be sure before now," she admitted.

"And the Zat?" he asked, more curious than angry.

"I stole it from an armory... I kind of lifted a keycard off a guard and got it. But he made that alarm before I could give the card back to him," she explained.

"Buffy, you're a kid. Never, ever touch a weapon again, no matter what. Understand? Tell your mom, tell me, tell someone when you suspect something before you go out and do something like this by yourself. What were you thinking?" he demanded.

"That it wouldn't be a problem, because I can handle any weapon safely after just looking at how it's done for a few minutes. Because I am not afraid of those snakes. Because it's... it's what I do." She said the last part in wonder. She felt like she was remembering a part of the past, but before she could grasp it, it faded again.

"I think your mom will have some choice words for you later," he warned before heading off.

"Buffy... thank you," Cassie whispered, as most people left the room, only to quickly be replaced by Janet and some nurses. A few moments later her mom arrived. The look on her face told Buffy that Jack had given her the brief version of events. She was probably going to get a serious talking to now.

--------------------------

Her mom had dragged her out into the corridor. "Buffy, don't you dare ever do anything like that again. How could you? I can understand defending Cassie, I love that you do that. But I cannot and will not ever tolerate you stealing and lying. Buffy, you could have told me in private, you could have told anyone you felt wasn't a Goa'uld. But you had to go it alone," her mom practically yelled.

She felt kind of rotten all of a sudden. She hadn't even considered including anyone. She had just decided that it was her enemy and she could and should take it out. She realized how wrong she had been. And something else previously unknown to her entered her mind. What if Sam decided to throw her out because of this?. Sure, she had adopted her, but the SGC had more than enough power to make that adoption disappear again. Buffy didn't want that. She couldn't allow that. "I am so sorry. I didn't think. I just did what I felt was right. I should have told you. Please, Mom, don't send me away... Don't hate me," she nearly cried.

Sam enveloped her in a warm hug. "I would never do that. Oh, Buffy, I'm sorry for yelling. I just got scared. Please, please be more careful in the future. Let us do these things," her mom said.

"Ok," she said, and mentally a part of her added, "for now."

--------------------------

Her little stunt did cost her one thing, though. She was summarily confined to spend all the rest of her on-base time with Daniel, who was translating some ancient thing in his large, book-filled room. It was strange, but this room felt so comfortable. Surrounded by books and the smell of them and the artifacts, she felt as much at peace as she did at home or in her mom's embrace.

"Damn, I have no idea what this is," Daniel mumbled to himself. She didn't believe him. He always figured those things out. He was a genius linguist, a natural in the very essence of the word.

Still she walked over and glanced at the clay shard he was examining. Strangely, it looked familiar to her. "I think that is Ancient Sumerian," she said as the words started making sense as she studied it.

"Really," he looked at the shard. "Ah, yes, I think you're right. I have translated some of that before," Daniel said and got up.

"You know, Buffy, isn't it weird to remember and know things without knowing where it comes from?" he asked.

"Wow, where did that come from?" she replied, "I guess... I try not to let it affect me. It's weird, but I seem to let weird roll off me like water off a duck, no matter what happens. You know, I think sometimes I had a lot of adventures before I came here, but I can't remember them."

"It's okay, really. You're happy and, well, I... I think you're better off here, if your life was so dangerous back on your world," he said, then looked a little guilty.

"No, don't look like that. I think you might be right about being better off here, actually. It's just sometimes I'm afraid that maybe I left someone behind who I maybe should miss...maybe even a lot. But I can't remember anyone. There is only you, Sam, Jack, Jacob, Teal'c, Janet, Cassie and George, now. You're my family now, and I worry about you all," she said.

He put a hand on her shoulder as he sat. "Buffy, you're barely eleven, you shouldn't worry about anything. Leave the worrying to us," he suggested.

"Of course I was just being silly," she lied, after pretending to think about it.

--------------------------

The Goa'uld was forced to heal Cassie, but they had to let her go in return, much to Jack and her mom's disappointment. Still, Cassie was fine and she came home a few days later. Buffy's mom immediately went back to being super busy. Christmas came soon, along with a season full of snow. They actually were having a white Christmas.

She stood in the driveway of Jack's house and watched as he shoveled a path so that Janet and Cassie, who were on their way, could get up to the house. He was a bit miffed, though; it was the second time he had done it that day, but the wind and fresh snow were already conspiring to cover up his current work. She stood, feeling almost giddy at the thought of all the presents inside waiting for the next day, as well as her options when considering whom to dump several gallons of snow on.

She wasn't sure why Daniel and Janet had smiled like goofs when she had told them that Jack had offered to let her and Sam sleep over so he could watch her unwrap his gift tomorrow morning. She had no idea why they had been so smug, when in the end they had all been invited to stay the night. Janet and Cassie had decided not to stay, but both Daniel and Teal'c had agreed after Jack's continued insistence. She liked having a lot of people around.

Jack cursed again as he finally looked up his long driveway and saw the already inch-deep snow at the main entrance. She smiled and waved. He waved back, then headed up the driveway. It was strange. Sometimes when she was out with Jack and they did stuff like this or he took her to see a movie, he would get a strangely faraway look in his eyes and often become distant, as if lost in memories. Like he did now as he walked back towards her. She had no idea why, though.

"Don't catch a cold out here, kiddo," he said as he came within talking distance.

"I won't, Jack," she replied and waited until he had just passed her. She reached down into the snow he had meticulously shoveled aside and made a snowball. She turned and flung it with exact precision at Jack's head. The ensuing splat and startled annoyed yell was quite satisfying. Of course, she had by then done the tactically smart thing and run into the garden behind the house. She just wished she had been able to stop laughing it was hard to ambush Jack again while she did.

--------------------------

She couldn't help feeling a bit odd and nervous. Jack had never before invited her to stay at his house, or even over for much more than a beer. They were strictly colleagues, nothing else, and they had to stand by that faithfully until either of them made a movement, which they both knew they couldn't. It would cost them their careers, or at the very least their posting at the SGC. She had recently puzzled about that, something she had never allowed herself to do seriously in the past.

She couldn't believe she even considered it, but she had at times seriously pondered other options. But the world needed her. She didn't like to think about it, but more than once her mind and skills had been all that stood between this world or another world and destruction, or between her friends and death. Still, she was seriously considering either asking to be posted to Area-52 to become part of the research and engineering team or resigning her commission. Area-52 had asked for her a great number of times before. This would not just be an opportunity to see if that could give her a chance for something long-distance with Jack, but also to have the time to watch and guide her daughter through her rapidly approaching teenage years. Something she really wanted to do.

Still, she couldn't; she knew that. She couldn't let go of her duty at the SGC. The world needed her. And if she didn't do her duty here, then there might not be a safe place for her daughter anywhere. Sacrificing a little to avoid sacrificing a lot, that was what could only be called inevitable.

She looked out the window. Buffy came running, occasionally jumping and rolling as Jack attempted to hit her with snowballs and failed miserably at his attempts every time. They were playing like children, and she realized she had rarely seen Jack more happy. She sighed and sat down on the couch, in front of the window overlooking the snow-covered garden. She thought about inevitabilities and the fact that with current regulations she still couldn't be with SG-1 if she quit the Air Force and worked as a civilian consultant for the SGC, like Daniel.

--------------------------

Daniel watched as Buffy and Sam sat snuggled up together in the sunken part of Jack's living room. They were chatting quietly, while watching the dusk outside. It looked like they were very comfortable with each other. Janet and Cassie had arrived a few minutes ago. Jack and Teal'c were helping Janet with the last of the dinner in the kitchen. Well, honestly, Jack was goofing off to Cassie and Teal'c was trying to understand their Earth tradition of Christmas. Daniel had spent the last two days talking about it and explaining why they hadn't made much of it before.

He hadn't done it much before himself, anyway. It was no secret to the rest of SG-1, his adopted family, that his life before the SGC hadn't been exactly fun a lot of the time. The only bright spots had been archaeology and his linguistic studies, before Sha're. Before this year they hadn't even gotten together within SG-1 for Christmas. Sure, they did celebrate birthdays and the like, but Christmas had been too family-oriented... too sacred, maybe, until this year. He looked back at Buffy and Sam and knew why. Buffy's existence had reminded them that they were a bit more than workmates or comrades in arms. After all those close and not-so-close calls, after all those harrowing times, after all those successes and some failures, they were family by association. He would never admit it. None of them were open about these things, but really they were family now.

Sam seemed to have some trouble, though. It wasn't that Jack had been right originally, when he had predicted that Sam and Buffy could become unhappy. But he knew, he could feel it, when he talked with Sam about this and that. Her focus had shifted, or it was at least conflicted now. He wondered if it would ever come to anything. Both Sam and Buffy seemed to understand the SGC's need for Sam's services, but there were cracks in that theory. He knew from looking at Sam at times that she no longer only wanted to be in her lab or out on their missions. She had bigger issues at stake, but maybe the issues they were working with at the SGC were also the reason she hadn't left yet.

"Hey, Space Monkey, I need a hand," Jack called out from the kitchen and shook him from his thoughts.

--------------------------

"This was a bad idea," he berated himself as he watched Buffy dig into her gifts like a frenzied piranha, while Sam looked on with a bemused expression on her face. He liked having someone there on Christmas day, but the scene was continuing to be like a stab in the heart. He kept seeing Charlie before his mind's eye. Still not wanting to ruin anything for anyone, he plastered the difficult-to-maintain smiling facade onto his face and tried to just get through it all.

The minutes wore on, which Buffy gushing and thanking everyone profusely for every gift. He loved the little pixie, and she couldn't know she was tap-dancing on his last nerve. The minutes turned into a half hour, and he feared his jaw would dislocate from shifting between smiling and nearly grinding his teeth. With the last presents unwrapped, including the couple of really nice ones for him, he decided he couldn't take it any more, so while they were getting up to enjoy breakfast he took at least temporary leave of his friends. He wandered into the entryway and put on his coat. "I'm going out, to make sure the drive is clear," he said out loud and beat his retreat.

He didn't really care about his speed and as soon as he left the house he progressed at a really quick jog down to the road. He turned left and walked into the bushes, over to an old pine tree. He looked at it, then leaned against it and breathed deeply. He couldn't cry. There were no tears to shed. It was in the past. Still, it felt like an old scab had just been torn off. He stood there for a little while, hoping that none of his friends had noticed his little break-down, when he felt a tug at his jacket.

He turned to find a watery-eyed Buffy looking up at him. "Did I bug ya?" she asked.

"No," he immediately replied. He couldn't have shown anything. No one could've known.

"You were annoyed all morning. What's the sitch?" she asked.

He blinked and said, "There was nothing wrong."

"Jack, I... is this about your son? Mom said you had a wife and a son once, but that he died. Did I do something... to... I'm sorry, I don't want to intrude... Jack... It's okay, he's in heaven now, waiting for you," she said with her seemingly impossible-to-look-away-from eyes locked with his.

He wanted to brush it off, explain it away, or even lie, but something about Buffy's words was so sincere that all he could do in return was to be truthful, "I miss him so much." And with those words, a few tears escaped his eyes.

Buffy walked over and took his hand. "As long as you never forget, it is alright. Just don't let his memory twist you up inside. It's life. The hardest thing in life isn't people dying; it's living with the loss after. But we have to, or all life their lives and ours would be in vain."

He scooped her into his arms and held her for a while, enjoying her slow, strong heartbeat against his chest. "You know, kiddo, I've told your mom this before, but now I am saying it to you. She should count herself lucky that I didn't take you and make you my daughter instead," he joked.

"Jack... Mom is my mom, I am hers. If you want me, you're just gonna have to make the sacrifice and marry her," she said matter-of-factly.

Jack frowned at that thought, as he carried her out of the bushes and back towards the house. "Let's keep that thought private -- okay, Buffy?" he said. He had thought about Sam before. Had they not been assigned to the SGC he would never have met her, but he knew that if they weren't assigned to the same command he would ask her on a date within the hour of receiving his new posting. But he felt the SGC needed his abilities, and Sam was practically the brain of the entire program, no matter what other eggheads thought.

Still, Buffy was right. If he wanted a life like his old one before Charlie... before Charlie had shot himself with his gun, then he would have to sacrifice something. He just couldn't make the Air Force actually do things the way he wanted. If that had been the case, then he would've... Actually, he didn't have a good plan, but maybe it was time to think about it. He was basically drafted into the program. The massive compensation they paid him for his services, and other fees for other things, all in all made him wealthy enough to own both a large house with equally large grounds and also a nice little cabin at a lake, and still have a pension fund and stocks in some companies he expected would hit it big when the Stargate program went public. He didn't really need his job, but the job needed him.

He carried Buffy to the door and set her back inside, where a dismayed-looking Sam was searching for her wayward daughter. "She came to collect me, saying breakfast would soon be ready," he said.

"She was mistaken, O'Neill. We have some difficulty with your juicer," Teal'c said.

He smiled and went into the kitchen. He might live mostly from cafeteria food, take-out, and restaurant visits, but he knew how to make breakfast. He decided maybe enjoying his day was alright, even with Charlie's happy face and squeals of joy when playing with his toys echoing in his ears. "I didn't even know I had a juicer," he replied.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: 

She put her head and after yawning massively. She had lain looking at the ceiling and thinking for nearly an hour. It was getting harder and harder to burn off all her energy every day. She was feeling restless all the time. Still finally you might say her eyes fell close and she slid into dreams.

_She walked across a sand dune. It was strange almost like she could hear some sort of distant set of voices singing a hymn. Something was drawing her towards the top of the next dune. She walked up in the hard sun but didn't sweat. She felt strangely at peace maybe even resting as she did so. She came upon a dip in the backside of the dune she had just crested. There was a single white sandstone, a small bush. And two blond women one sat on the rock studying the horizon. She leaned back her head and looked her over seemingly studying her then after giving her a pleasant smile she turned back and looked back over the trackless landscape._

_The other a woman with a shy smile and sandy blond hair walked up to her in her flowery dress. "You don't remember," she said, "but we've met before."_

"_Am I dreaming?" she asked._

"_Yes and no, we're in dreams, but this is not really a dream," the woman replied. Suddenly she remembered her name. It was Tara and Tara had died._

"_You're dead," she said._

"_Yes, but that doesn't mean much to you does it," Tara asked._

"_No," she agreed. Strangely it really didn't feel weird to her._

"_Buffy, you don't remember. You will. One day you will. One day when you're ready," Tara said._

_She felt as if a distant wind was approaching. Their dresses started dancing in the warm wind. "What will I remember?" she asked._

"_Who you are... What you can become," Tara said when with a sudden roar they were enveloped in a sand storm._

She woke up coughing and looked around her room. Outside the birds were singing and everything seemed normal. It had just been another dream, she decided. Then a voice different than Tara's said in her mind, "You don't know yet, but one day you'll remember... Who you are... What you can become." It seemed surprised and had a strangely German accent like those villains in the movies.

She nearly jumped out of bed and checked her room, under her bed even in her closet, but she was alone. The voice didn't say anything else.

-------------------

"So it's Saturday and we both have oodles of time today. What do you think, how about we go into town, workout for a bit and get a couple of massages. I've heard there is a really good movie out, which I would be glad to pay to watch as well. Is my daughter interested?" she asked.

Buffy nodded vigorously. They were a few days into February and she thankfully had the day off. It had been another rough week with the entire Aschen affair and hurting her arm. She wanted the work out to gouge if she still had her light sprain and maybe get the kinks worked out in the massage.

They hadn't been too lucky lately she mused as they cleared the breakfast table. First the Tollan had been wiped out by Tanith and his mysterious master then they had nearly gotten wiped out by the bioweapons of the Aschen. It was a good thing it was finally time for a bit of time off. The general had rotated SG-1 out of the active roster for the next two weeks. Although experience told her that a crisis needing their attention would crop up before the fortnight was over.

"So mom, I wondered about something. You said I got my new hair from you. Do you have weird dreams a lot? Because I had one last night and well it was majorly weird," Buffy commented.

She wondered what Buffy meant, but then again given the life she led and Buffy led along with her more than a few weird dreams weren't out of the question. "Yeah, I get really weird ones every once in a while. You know dreams is just our subconscious mind telling your conscious mind about things it thinks you should know. They're important but they're not mystical or anything like that," she explained.

Buffy seemed to study her for a few moments then shrug. "I have to put my hair in a pony tail before we go," she said and ran off.

-------------------

They both slowly relaxed as they got their wellness massage. She didn't care that some people would consider Buffy a bit young to get one of those. She knew better than anyone how hard Buffy worked out and studied every day. Buffy was apparently channeling all her available energy into keeping busy and learning. Her rate of progress given that she didn't have to follow any curriculum or schedule was shocking.

Apparently the education program they had set up for Buffy worked exceptionally well. She had gone up to a straight A student now, she was studying all her material at sophomore high school level at a minimum and had actually entered into college preparatory levels in all but her history and language courses. Especially her science courses had picked up but given that she had twice as many classes in Maths, Physics and Chemistry it did make sense. Still Buffy was a kid of eleven maybe a year from starting College.

"Uhhhh, this is so good," Buffy groaned.

"Yeah, I've always liked it," she agreed. It appeared her arm was alright too. She had trained it today carefully at first then intensely a half hour before they had gone to their massages.

-------------------

They walked out of the fitness center chatting. She had almost forgotten about her dream this morning and was pretty much just enjoying the day. It felt great just walking with her mom, talking about their day ahead, about yet another boy she had gotten to swoon with little more than a coy smile and how much she was to her own surprise actually enjoying the challenges her math teacher was giving her, now that he had finally convinced her she could use her studies for something.

Her mom didn't know it, but the entire Cassandra matter a few months back had given her an idea, which was slowly becoming a plan. Maybe if she worked hard enough she could get into the Air Force Academy and follow her mom into the SGC. At that point in the future her mom would probably be somewhere high in the military and she'd be able to work in some sort capacity on a SG team or maybe on one of those space ships she was sure they'd build sooner or later. She'd like that. Helping her world, protecting her friends and having adventures. Of course she hadn't told her mom about her plan yet, she had gotten the sense a few times that her mom wasn't really all that enthusiastic about any connection between her and the military.

Still as they turned the building and headed for the parking lot, she started thinking about how cool it would be to have her own car. Of course the thought of having to leave home by then was a little disturbing. She didn't really want to leave her family behind. They rounded the corner and walked towards their other car aside from the restored classic one her mom kept in the garage: An SUV with actual hidden armor that her mom had bought from some overly paranoid now-pensioned businessman. She didn't much like its ominous black paint and toned windows feeling it looked a bit too scary-government-agent for her taste.

She heard wheels screech. Her mom pushed out in front of her. Two large van slid into place in front of them. She readied herself for battle. There were two strange sounds and she felt a sting in her thigh. She looked down. A tiny dart was embedded there.

"Buffy run!" her mom yelled and charged a guy dressed all in black like a commando of some sort. Her movements seemed uncoordinated and sluggish. She had to help. Her head seemed fuzzy. The drug they had given her was strong. She decided to play possum and swayed uncontrollably as if she was also about to keel over. Her mom fell limply in the two guys arms.

She didn't run, she couldn't bring herself to abandon her mom. Two men grabbed her arms. One commented, "I thought she was supposed to be strong and smart."

"Doesn't matter we gave her enough to put down a bear," the other replied.

She couldn't help smiling ferally as she grabbed their forearms and easily hammered the two fools into each other face to face. It felt great as they dropped prone in pain and surprise. She was about to finish them up when she was hit by another dart right in the shoulder. She looked up and saw the man next to the driver lowering his dart gun. Her mom was dragged into the first van completely out of the fight. She drew the dart from her shoulder and tossed it under the car. She hoped it could give someone some sort of clue.

"Oh, no," she whispered as the world seemed to swim for a moment. She couldn't stay upright anymore. She fell to her knees. She tried hyperventilating but it didn't help. Finally after a few more heartbeat her entire body felt numb. Her world seemed to become greytoned and her view coming from a distant tunnel before fading completely.

-------------------

Sam woke up in some sort of bed. Buffy was nowhere in sight. "Where... What happened?" she asked and tried to blink the strange fuzziness out of her eyes.

A bald and nervous seeming man with beady eyes stepped up to her and licked his lips. "Stay calm Major. If you just stay calm this will be over soon," he said trying to be soothing and only seeming creepy.

"What have you done? Where am I?" she said as the memory of her kidnapping. Of her daughter's potential kidnapping. She had no idea if Buffy had gotten away.

"In a hospital," the bald man said.

"I demand to be released," she said and struggled against what turned out to be restraints usually meant for difficult or dangerous patients. She was locked to the bed by her hands and feet.

"Now now Major, relax, this will all be over soon. I had so hoped... Oh well you'll understand in time, we're doing great things here. What we do here now could save the lives of millions. Now just relax we need to do a few tests," the creepy guy in his white coat adjusted her IV and walked away.

Her head started to feel fuzzy again. Still she said, "no no you've got the wrong woman."

-------------------

Her head throbbed. Something... no those were the sound of shoes... someone was in a room with her. Buffy hadn't opened her eyes. She tried to keep her breaths shallow and listen. Someone else walking clumsy came in a bit out of breath in the otherwise silent room. "The major is awake. Have you gotten what you needed from the kid?" a deep male voice asked.

"Yeah, I have a good feeling about this. If we can crack the secret of her abilities, her immune system we'd be set for life and think of the lives saved as well," a younger voice replied. She felt a shiver down her spine. It had happened she had been made a labrat. The thought sickened her.

She opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a hospital ward of some kind. Old, worn and abandoned. The windows had been painted with some sort of white paint to keep curious eyes out and limiting her view. "Ah you're awake, little miracle girl," a young sandy haired man said.

His balding buddy worried her more though. His eyes racked her body with a greed she found disturbing. Not lust just greed for something to do with her. "I AM NOT A LABRAT! Let Me GO!" she screamed hoping someone somewhere would react. At the same time she thrashed on the bed to test her bonds. She was almost like welded to the bed however she felt a bit of give already. She looked down and found that she had been shackled to the bed and her legs as well as her stomach and chest were strapped to the bed as well.

The men walked over to her. "She is really strong, the entire bed nearly jumped," the younger guy said to the older guy completely ignoring her.

"We knew that from the recordings we got of her training and testing," the balding guy replied.

The younger guy checked her shackles and seemingly satisfied said, "It looks like we'll have no problem holding her though."

"Good, let's get ready for the Major's biopsy. We'll do the kid once we have her rates and numbers down," the balding guy apparently the leader said. She didn't like that they had let her see them. That meant she knew them and that again meant they could go to jail if she ever got to talk to the police. She was in danger, but worse her mom was somewhere in the building according to what the other guy had said. And they were about to do something really painful to her. She tested her bonds again. They couldn't hold her she was sure of that. She hadn't used her full power in her tests. In fact she was pretty sure she had yet to really use her muscles to their limit while on Earth.

She could not make many mistakes if she wanted to rescue her mom and in the future protect the rest of SG-1. She needed to get cleverer fast. First she needed to get away from the hospital room. The white walls sent a shiver through her and she remember the monsters that would walk the halls of these places. Her captors weren't exactly changing her mind about that either. She was actually very scared, but she tried hard not to think about it.

She considered if the bed could actually take her full strength if even the shackles couldn't. It looked like a regular hospital bed. The bed probably couldn't take it either, she decided.

She heard another few steps and a guy walked into the room but stayed out of sight at the door. She leaned back and saw a security guard kind of guy with another of those dart guns. That meant she had to postpone her escape attempt until he was distracted or a better opportunity presented itself.

-------------------

"The Air Force Academy security guys checked in with me just after eight. Buffy had not come to school. I called Carter but she didn't respond," he explained to Teal'c.

George looked up from his papers and said to Teal'c, who had just joined them. "The forensic team we sent over found nothing in her house. According to her neighbors, Major Carter and Buffy left in her SUV around 9 Saturday morning," the general explained.

He hadn't read that report yet he realized. He would get a copy to read while heading out to find the girls. "That's over 48 hours," he said more to himself disappointed it had taken that long for anyone to notice that Sam and Buffy was gone.

Daniel came in. He had been talking on the phone. The general was using him a lot for liaison stuff these days. George had really gotten to trust the scientist. "The police found Sam's car, her and Buffy's training bags and a discarded tranquilizer dart. They promised to send a sample of its contents over to Janet's department, but they're keeping it for analysis. I told them to treat it as a kidnapping and that the Air Force and FBI will have to get involved because of Sam and Buffy's clearance levels," he said.

"Good work, Daniel," George said.

"Anything else," he asked.

"They had no witnesses and the area is not part of any camera arcs," Daniel replied and sat down while frowning.

He got up. He must have let his expression show his intent, because the general said, "Colonel, we have no jurisdiction outside this facility."

He knew that. But thankfully he had actually once lived a life that involved operating outside the rules and jurisdictions of the entire world. It was a greytoned world filled with death and violence. It still haunted him but that didn't mean he wouldn't let his older darker ability come into play to get his girls out of trouble. "I know, but we can still look, can't we?"

The general silently nodded and looked down at his papers without saying anything. That way it was neither an order or tacit approval. The SGC was safe.

"Coming," he asked Daniel and Teal'c, who both promptly got up and followed.

As they walked down the corridor he turned his head towards them and said, "I need to get a hold of a few sources, check somethings out and maybe visit a friend or two out of town. Daniel, you and Teal'c go to that parking lot and find something. Anything we could use."

"Jack, you have no idea..." Daniel said then paused. "The soldier in the Orlin incident. You think the NID might have tried something again," he continued.

"Yup, and I am going to talk to an old buddy of mine about that," he said. The thought of contacting that weasel nagged him greatly, but Maybourne was his best chance at getting someone to talk to him.

Daniel and Teal'c turned and went towards the elevators, while he headed for his office. He sat at his rarely used computer and used his one finger key tapping skills to open the internet and find the website he had only seen once before. He spent a half hour puzzling out the way to join the movie posting board and then write his message, "Hutch, we need to meet." Now all he could do was to wait. He hated spy games, but it did come naturally to him.

-------------------

"I do not understand, why not more of the SGC is out looking for Major Carter and Buffy Summers," he said.

"We're not really allowed to act within the US borders. The police is because they have proper authority and oversight for this kind of thing. So we have to deal with this as if we're friends looking for a friend," Daniel Jackson explained.

He thought about that. It was not far from the ideal of honor and retribution that his people practiced. It was proper that he as a friend of Samantha Carter and joint protector of Buffy Summers was the agent of retribution. They walked onto the parking area... lot as Daniel Jackson had called it.

He looked around. Whoever had planned this had known the schedule of Samantha Carter too well. If indeed Buffy Summers was a target as well then it was most likely that they had been under constant surveillance for a while. "I don't see anything special," Daniel Jackson said.

"Daniel Jackson, I believe I might have seen something of interest," he said after spotting something at the end of the parking area. A small home constructed from what looked like leftover materials. It looked a lot poorer than any other Tau'ri dwelling he had seen before except on television.

"I think the police might have... You know what it's worth a try," Daniel Jackson said. They walked up to the dwelling. He kept back to avoid intimidating the usually smaller Tau'ri. Looming Buffy Summers had called him recently. He had looked it up and he had realized that many in the past had behaved as if he really was a looming person.

Daniel Jackson examined the seemingly empty dwelling. He however had noticed the feet sticking out from under one of the cardboard box and cloth buildings. Daniel Jackson moved some leaves, when the figure inside jumped up. A scrawny, bearded and unwashed elderly looking man appeared.

"His feet, I said. Look at his feet. With feet like that he's huge. Would you trust a man with feet that big?" the elderly man mumbled cast nervous glances at him several times before fixing Daniel Jackson with a look.

"Hello," Daniel Jackson said and approached the fidgeting man.

"Go away. This is my stuff. I just got it all together again. You know the police came here," the man said.

"I just want to ask you some questions," Daniel Jackson asked.

"You... you got a dollar?" the man asked.

Daniel grabbed his wallet and pulled out some of the Tau'ri money. That was one of those things that puzzled him. They were using paper. Something as worthless as paper for money. That would never have worked on Chu'lak or anywhere else with the Jaffa. Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill had many times on their visits to the city tried to explain it to him. He had smiled and waited until they were finished as he sometimes did when the Tau'ri tried to explain an idea he felt was not all that clever.

"Here's a dollar," Daniel Jackson said and haded the paper to the hand.

"Thanks," the man said and walked into his dwelling again. He intended it seemed to extend the negotiations or play them for a fool. Had he been on Chu'lak they would have been discussing over drawn weapons at this very moment.

"Were you here Saturday?" Daniel Jackson asked apparently a little surprised from his tone of voice. He felt it was impolite to enter the conversation at this point and a threat might not be all that useful. It often seemed Daniel Jackson was better at judging these things anyway so he deferred and waited.

"Why should I tell you?" the man answered.

"I gave you a dollar," Daniel Jackson suggested.

"I thought you were being generous," the man said.

"Listen, I can give you more. Please I need your help. A good friend of mine and her daughter were kidnapped from this lot Saturday. I'm afraid they'll get hurt if we don't find them," Daniel Jackson pleaded while holding out a hundred dollar bill.

The man stepped closer to them. He decided there was no chance this man could shake off a tracker given the rancid smell he gave off. "You a cop?" he asked.

"No, we're just two guys trying to find our friends. Listen one is a woman about 5'9'' blond, the other a kid also blond long curly hair," Daniel Jackson replied.

"Wouldn't believe me if I told you," the man said and turned away shaking his head.

"Listen please, I have seen some crazy stuff. I will believe a lot more than anyone else you have met," Daniel Jackson said.

The man turned and looked them over. "What did you see?" Daniel Jackson asked still holding out the money.

"They were feisty, put up a fight. They had to shoot the kid twice," the man said. He fixed the man with a stare. Halfwitted as he clearly was it was clear he was telling things from his memory given the look on his face.

"Fight with whom?" he asked.

"Ninjas, four in each van. Happened fast, they pulled up in two white vans, shot them, grabbed the woman then the girl. The girl knocked two of them out. Strong kid. But the ninjas I've seen them before I've been telling the police about them for years," the man explained.

"Right... Okay, here," Daniel said and pressed the money into the man's hands.

As they walked away Daniel Jackson turned his head and said, "Jack was right. This stinks of NID or someone like that."

"Could it not be anyone else?" he replied knowing that the Earth was a large and diverse planet.

"Information on Sam is pretty well contained to SGC, NID and a few Russian military officers. Even less people know anything but false information about Buffy. Jack tried to make sure of that. Of course it could've leaked, but according to what the General and Jack has told me over the years the Pentagon is actually running a rather massive operation with the NSA, FBI and CIA to fight and contain all leaks. We only get involved if it is in any way associated with alien technology or incidents," Daniel Jackson explained.

"Then we must find our enemy quickly before Samantha Carter and Buffy Summers Carter comes to harm," he said and thought that if he had been more honest with Daniel Jackson he would have added, "Or I will have to extract retribution from their captors." But as usual it was better to not tell the Tau'ri that. Their methods could still work and if they didn't he might be able to move Bra'tac and a few other loyal Jaffa to come aid him in determining the guilty. Of course there would be one issue, he had yet to perform the ceremony of protection over Buffy Summers, however since that first day when Daniel had called for them all to protect her he had considered that a mere technicality.

-------------------

Buffy had a guard day and night it seemed. The creepy doctors had been by a few times to put probes on her skin and attach her to monitoring devices. They had also drawn a blood sample. She couldn't sleep she was too wired. She just wanted to find a way to distract the guard long enough for her to get free and free her mom. Then they'd pay. She would make sure.

-------------------

Sam was conscious again. They had taken samples from her. She had aches and pains that made that obvious. She was coming out of narcosis. She needed to escape. She twitched purposefully. They hadn't tied her down yet. The bed she was being moved on stopped. "You gotta see this. We got the first results on her blood tests back. We found an unusual protein marker. It seems to occur naturally in both of them. And there are traces of an unidentified heavy metal," a voice she hadn't heard before but which sounded clearer and more secure in himself than the one of the balding man's.

"What do you mean unidentified," the balding man asked.

"Nothing I or the lab have ever seen before. We think it might be from a stable element group beyond the transuranic. That's the only possibility I could come up with anyway," the other guy said.

"Send out the samples to the lab in Phoenix and file everything correctly in the shared database," the balding guy said.

She lifted her head and spotted a small table close by with several medical tools. She got an idea, but knew she had to play it smart. She rolled off the bed smashing into the tray. The tools flew every where. She quickly grabbed a scalpel and hid it up her sleeve trying to ignore her head spinning.

"She's strong. I gave her enough chloral hydrate to put down a man twice her weight," the younger guy said. She could hear them walk over.

"All right Major. Very impressive but ultimately futile," the balding guy said. "Besides if you run we'll just hurt your kid, so no running okay," he continued.

She felt a warm flash of hatred. She swore if Buffy was hurt these two motherfuckers would be going straight to hell with no stops in jail on the way.

-------------------

He knew he had to go out and about. It had been nearly a day since he had posted on that forum. Maybourne couldn't contact him while he was in the SGC the security there was way too tight. He stopped at a gas station. Daniel and Teal'c had gotten him confirmation on his suspicions and so he now had to take next step. He wondered if Colonel Simmons the NID liaison that had been involved in the Orlin business a while back was tied up in all of this too.

He started pumping gas into his SUV, when someone walked up behind him. The steps indicated a smaller guy. A gun was pressed against his back. "Don't turn around," Maybourne's voice said.

He turned around anyway. "Harry, how are you? You never write, you never call. You could've at least left me an address to give the guys so they could kill... I mean arrest you," he said.

"I've got a gun," Maybourne said as if he needed to be told. He knew the feeling of a gun against his back and that earlier had been one.

"Me too," he replied although he also had two knives there was no need to remind Harry aware of that.

"I'm just trying to keep you out of trouble. I am a wanted criminal, someone might not be happy with you not arresting me since it is your duty," Maybourne replied.

"Always thinking of me, that's so nice of you Harry. How'd you find me?" he asked. He often wondered how the NID kept track of him since he swept his house and car for trackers and bug every week.

"Played a lot of hide and seek as a kid. Funny, I could always find anyone or anything anywhere but they could never find me," Maybourne said.

He thought about Harry's personality and said with a smirk, "that's because they didn't want to. I mean they knew you a little right."

Maybourne rolled his eyes and looked around nervously. "What do you want Jack?" he asked.

"Carter and her kid is missing," he said watching Maybourne intently.

"Really," Maybourne replied and there it was. Just a faint hint hidden by Harry's training and skills as a spy but still enough for him to see. Harry hadn't known. At least he hadn't done it then. A bit of his tension drained.

"Bunch of guys in white vans with tranqs took her and her kid out about four days ago. Figured it might be some of your old friends," he said again watching for hints.

"Not the word I'd use for them," Maybourne muttered and looked thoughtful for a moment.

"What do you know?" he asked hoping Maybourne might say something.

"Sorry, I can't help ya," Maybourne replied and started backing away.

"You didn't come back here, worked your way into the country and risk execution just to see me," he said and realized that given the trouble such an act entailed and the short time it had taken Maybourne to seek him out. Harry had already been in the country.

"God knows Jack, I could think of a hundred reasons why the NID might want the Major and her kid well if the rumors are true you could just as soon add a few hundred more. But I swear to you I don't know if, why or even where she was taken. Why don't you ask the NID?" Maybourne smiled at his suggestion as if it was clever.

"Gee, thanks, hadn't thought of that," he replied getting a bit irritated again at the smug bastard.

"You know what, try User 4574," Maybourne suggested.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"Wish I could stay and chat but I gotta go," Harry said and backed to stand against the door of his car. Clearly the audience was over. He debated taking the guy in but to be honest with himself it worked better for him having Harry out and about. He might shake something loose. He knew the former Colonel hated secrets he wasn't in on. He would do a bit of his research for him. It was time to track him though. Of course having access to certain intelligence resources through his various buddies that wouldn't be too hard.

"Harry, we're talking about Carter here," he said trying to make the man understand that he would not accept this. Of course Maybourne and the NID acted like they didn't know but there was actually a large number of people, who was getting more and more upset. One or two of Buffy's teachers had even called him up and asked if they could help in the investigation. Of course he had placed them with Buffy because they were like that, but he couldn't just go and have a military force run around the US without a proper target.

"I know. Listen, I'm really sorry Jack. I know what she means to you and I've seen pictures of the kid I am sure she is nice too. But you know how this game is played and the kind of people who play it. You gotta prepare yourself for the possibility that they might not be coming back," he said through the open window on his car and drove off.

He took out his phone and dialed the general.

-------------------

He heard as the general said, "That's all he said: User 4574. I think we know who that is Colonel."

He looked up. "They did", Jack wondered in his mind.

"User 4574, is the SGC security designation of the NID liaison officer assigned at the Pentagon to watch the SGC," the general said.

Simmons, he thought. That man did seem all to false nice with just an undertone of evil. It was another hint that the NID might be behind it all.

"I will get a bird ready to take you over to the East Coast immediately bye," the general said and hung up.

"So another clue," he asked.

"Could be misdirection, Doctor Jackson," the general reminded him before dialing someone else. The general seemed as preoccupied as Jack with this. Of course that might be because the NID could be provoking another drop in the quality of relations with the Tok'ra. He was sure that Jacob would consider the kidnapping of his daughter and granddaughter enough of a reason to speak out against helping the SGC as much as they already did.

-------------------

He had been there since the morning. Buffy and Sam had been gone for almost exactly five days and now he was cooling his heels in the front office of Simmons with his secretary trying to give him the polite brush-off all morning. He got up. "I demand to see the Colonel now. He is not in a meeting, there are no phone calls. Get me in to see him now or so help me god I will call the Joint Chiefs and ask them to force Simmons to see me," he said and knew he could actually have the general do something much like that.

The secretary seemed to take him seriously. She got up and walked into the office behind this one. She carelessly however left the door open behind her and so he followed her in and heard her say, "I am sorry, sir, but he is getting a little..."

"Pissed is the word. It happens when you keep someone waiting for nearly an hour," he said and gave Simmons the look of disdain he reserved for Goa'uld or people he considered to have equivalent morals to.

"Well... Welcome to the Pentagon, Colonel. Thank you Dolores," he said and nodded to his secretary.

"You have to forgive me, it's just I have a lot on my plate at the moment," Simmons said.

"Yeah, well, it's just two people's lives at stake. Sorry to take you away from your busy time of doing nothing about it," he replied. The NID should've been all over the police and busily helping the SGC investigating Sam's disappearance days ago. But they seemed to have done nothing.

"And I am the one whose sorry because you've obviously wasted a trip to Washington as well as my time," Simmons replied looking unperturbed as always. He was a slick guy that much was certain.

"I don't think so," he said.

"You know, I was just reading about Major Carter's disappearance. I couldn't help but wonder more glowing aliens had anything to do with it. Or maybe oh I don't know maybe her kid took a trip home," Simmons replied with supreme arrogance. Right at that moment the bastard had no idea how lucky he was that he hadn't been able to bring a sidearm. The moment of anger passed though.

"Look Simmons. I don't expect you to just tell me what's going on, but I guarantee you this trip will not be a waste. If I have to I'll spend the rest of my life in this building getting to the bottom of all this and how it ties to you," he said suddenly sure that the smug bastard was involved somehow.

"Why do you even think that I have something to do with this? The NID has nothing to do with the kidnapping of US military officers or civilians," Simmons glibly replied.

"A reliable source told me," he said.

"Really... I think I know what source you're referring to. Colonel, are you telling me you're trusting a convicted traitor over me... and the entire NID?" Simmons asked and managed to look offended.

"More than you and especially more than the NID," he replied.

"Look your opinion of me and this organization has been tainted by the actions of the very man you got your information from and by his cadre of rogue agents," Simmons replied.

"I doubt very much that Maybourne alone was in command of this. He doesn't have the inclination," he explained.

"The NID is a legitimate organization financed by the Government, which has been duly elected by the people of this country," Simmons said.

"I know this part," he said tiring of mincing words.

"Our mandate is clear, Colonel. We provide vital civilian oversight of top secret military operations," Simmons said. He just rolled his eyes in reply.

"Who watches over you?" he asked.

"We're not unaccountable, Colonel. And I admit there have been some minor indiscretions in the past, perpetrated by a few renegades. But they've been exposed and they will be brought to justice with or without your help," Simmons explained.

"Maybourne is pointing the finger at you," he said.

"And you never considered that Maybourne is just trying to mask his own part in this," Simmons said while digging out a folder from his desk. He handed it over.

He scanned the page it was a list of money transfers as well as several notes about where and when the money had been moved to and from. "We recently traced a deposit made into the one of Maybourne's offshore bank accounts that we luckily knew about. The transfer took place from a numbered company on the Caymen Islands and we have yet to ascertain who it was from but we're working on it," Simmons explained.

"Great and in the mean time anything could be happening to Major Carter and her daughter," he replied.

"It's the best we can do. We're not counterespionage Colonel," Simmons said.

"Three million," he mused.

"Makes you wonder what he did to earn that kind of money. Doesn't it?" Simmons said.

-------------------

A few minutes after Jack O'Neill had left his office he picked up his phone. "How far along are they?" he asked.

"They're still testing the Major, sir. They'll move on to the kid tomorrow or maybe the day after. They'll have to implant him soon though," the voice on the other end replied.

"Our timing needs to be perfect. We need to move in and get him before they use the kid's blood to kill the symbiont," he said.

"It could get dicey," the voice replied.

"Listen either way we get things out of this. If you get it right we get a Goa'uld to pump for information and the kid for further investigation. If you get it wrong we still get all their results," he said.

"I know. Simmons when are you coming out here?" the voice asked.

"I am flying down tomorrow," he replied and hung up.

-------------------

It was night outside maybe early morning. Sam slipped the scalpel out of her sleeve and started working on her cuff. She glanced at the camera in the corner trying to make sure no one could see too clearly what she was doing.

-------------------

Buffy opened her eyes. The guard was still awake and watching her. Damn she had hoped, but it seemed they had yet to slip up. The scary bald guy had been in today and told her that she would soon be tested and to be calm as all would be over soon. She hadn't taken much comfort from that though.

-------------------

"Jack, you with us," he said talking to the conference phone sitting between him, the general and Teal'c.

"Yeah," Jack replied. He was flying back from Washington following the morning across the US.

"Okay, we pulled a few strings with the NSA and they got the name of the holding company that owned that Cayman Islands account that was used to pay Maybourne. They told me not to ask how. Anyway it's a subsidiary of Zedatron Industries," he explained.

"That sounds familiar," Jack said and the General nodded.

"It's owned and run by a single man Adrian Conrad. He made a couple of hundred million in something called Fiber optic host channel adapters and then had the good sense to diversify before the .com bubble burst. Now Zedatron is into everything from shipyards to sportsware. Certain components that will be used for the X-302 and X-303 projects have been commissioned from Zedatron subsidiaries," he explained.

"But what is his connection with Maybourne," Teal'c asked.

"Isn't it pretty common for ex-spies to sell information or even their skills in the private sector?" he asked.

"We know Maybourne had access to extensive files on the SGC including every member of SG-1. We can only guess that he must have continued access to learn about Buffy," George said.

"Maybourne did let slip he knew about Buffy, so that is a given," Jack said over the crackly phone.

"The other interesting thing about Adrian Conrad is that he hasn't been seen in public in six months. His last appearance was a live video conference from their head office in Seattle to a Zedatron stockholders meeting," he explained reading from his notes.

"Hmm, my guy in the FBI told me that they have clues indicating Maybourne might have been in Seattle lately. Maybe he is still there. General, I am changing my flightplan all right?" Jack said.

"All right and while you are there make inquires about Zedatron. We will continue our investigation from here," the general replied.

-------------------

He had been considering entering Zedatron and see if he could shake something loose, but as luck would have it, he had seen Maybourne arrive. It had been easy to sneak into the basement and await him there. He saw Maybourne return from his meeting and approached as silently as possible. He swore if the slippery ex-spy didn't give him answers he would allow himself to use certain older skills at extracting information that were strictly held illegal but he was getting to the point where he didn't care anymore.

"Harry," he said as he grabbed Maybourne and disarmed him.

"Jesus, Jack," Maybourne gasped as he let him go.

"You're stealing my routine," the upset little man said.

"Call it a homage," he said.

"What's up Jack? I thought we trusted each other?" Maybourne asked and tried to look emotionally wounded.

"You lied to me. Get in the car and start talking as we drive. If you tell me enough we'll go for a bite if not I will start retraining old skills on you," he said.

-------------------

"Hello again, Major Carter," the bald man said. She had known he was there but she only sullenly turned towards him.

"If you don't mind I'd like to ask you a few questions. I don't know if I mentioned what a thrill this is for me," he said with a smile. She tried to express all her hatred in one look. It seemed to work as his smile fell.

"I mean I wish we didn't have to do it under these conditions given the circumstances. You and your daughter are very unique individuals. You may well hold the key to the future of medical science," he said.

"Nothing you can learn from me and certainly not from my daughter can help you. You've made a big mistake, we..." she said trying to maintain cover.

"Please, we know what happened to you. We know that you were both at some point the hosts of an alien symbiote," he replied. Damn that indicated they knew about the SGC.

"I'm a physicist. I study deep space radar telemetry. I don't know what you're talking about," she said repeating her cover story.

"Please Major. Don't waste my time with that ridiculous cover story. Tell me what you can about the symbiote and how you got rid of it. How was the process different for you and your daughter?" he asked with the mad intensity returning.

"Bite me," she replied and looked away.

-------------------

"First of all technically I didn't lie. I said I didn't know where Carter and her kid was or why she was taken," Maybourne said rather urgently something in his expression seemed to make the usually unflappable man nervous.

"What were the three million dollars for?" he asked.

"I acquired a piece of merchandise from the Russians and sold it to Zedatron," Maybourne said.

"What," he asked a little bit angry for the continued evasion.

"A symbiote," Maybourne replied.

"What?! Are you nuts, you let some private company buy a real live Goa'uld symbiote," he yelled.

Maybourne winced and said, "The Russians captured a Jaffa on their second trip out. They've been keeping him underwraps moving him around while trying to decide how to deal with him or use him. They were getting antsy though. Apparently the symbiote was almost mature."

"So why kidnap Carter and her kid," he asked.

"I am not sure, but the Major did have one in her once. Maybe they thought she might hold the clue to getting rid of it again. I've heard from fascinating things about her daughter on that front as well," Maybourne commented.

"Maybourne, you rotten dirty bastard," he cursed.

"Listen Jack, I obviously didn't know. I also don't know how Zedatron found out about me, the SGC or anything else. But when people offer you three million dollars, you don't ask too many questions," Maybourne explained.

"Why not?" he asked still angry.

"Believe me Jack, I never thought it was going to come to this," Maybourne replied.

"What did you think was going to happen?" he asked while considering how to find Sam if she was in Zedatron's hands.

"Well in the right hands a symbiote could lead to all kinds of medical breakthroughs," Maybourne offered.

"And it could also result in a Goa'uld running free here on Earth," he replied.

"Are you gonna turn me in?" Maybourne asked.

"Actually the urge to shoot you has come back," he said.

"You still need me Jack," Maybourne said.

"Really," he asked very unsure that was the case.

"Because I know the name of the Doctor, who took delivery of the symbiote," Maybourne replied.

-------------------

He and Teal'c sat with the general. Jack and Maybourne were on the phone and Janet had just sat down after reading the documents that Jack had faxed over from some doctor's office. The general had finally made it a foothold situation and now it was officially a SGC matter.

"I've read through the files and it would appear that Adrian Conrad is in the late states of an extremely rare disorder known as Burchadts Syndrome. It's a condition that affects the immune system leaving the body defenseless against a host of diseases. There is no known cure," Janet reported.

"Except something like the healing powers of a Goa'uld symbiote," Teal'c said.

"The only way that would work would be through implantation. I mean Conrad isn't a Jaffa," he said.

"They may be studying the symbiote, trying to isolate and artificially reproduce its healing properties, but that could take decades to really figure out and even longer to get a process ready for application," Janet said.

"Major Carter's experience with Jolinar would make her body a valuable source of information," Teal'c suggested.

"What are their chances of success?" The general asked.

"Well, obviously we've been researching this for some time, sir. Even with unlimited resources, I would be surprised if they came up with even the right questions to ask quickly. And if they're trying to save Mr. Conrad's life they certainly don't have enough time," Janet explained.

"How do we find him?" Jack asked over the phone.

"Given his condition, he would require constant medical supervision. He must be in some kind of a hospital or well-equipped facility," Janet explained.

He remembered something, "Saint something... When I was checking out the holdings of that numbered company," he looked at his papers scanning line after line as quickly as he could. "St. Christina's. It's a hospital in the Seattle suburbs that's been shut down for a couple of years."

"I'll contact the local authorities. Daniel, you and Teal'c can meet Colonel O'Neill there. A jet will be prepped and ready to go by the time you get to the airstrip," the general said.

"Orders?" Jack asked over the phone.

"Retrieve the Major and Buffy Summers. Then secure the symbiote or if someone has been implanted then the host as well. And Jack godspeed," the general replied.

-------------------

It was late. Her restraint has been sawed through a few moments ago. Sam quickly planned her actions before pushing herself off the bed. She made her way into the corridor. She debated what was best finding Buffy or escaping to call help. Her concern for Buffy won over. She found a set of stairs and was about to go up.

There was a noise. Steps of someone coming down towards her. She went a few steps down instead of up and crouched. A man walked out in front of her looking into the corridor she had left. They had already found out she was missing. She dashed up before he sensed her and kicked the back of his knee. As he stumbled she grabbed his head and hammered it with all her weight into the door sill. She reached down and grabbed his gun. She didn't where Buffy was so she had to carefully search from floor to floor starting with the one she was on.

-------------------

She noticed her guard stepping out into the corridor. Buffy angled her head and saw him looking down the hall instead of looking at her. She smiled. Finally her chance had come. She flexed her muscles and enjoyed the sound of metal groaning. The bedside gave away before her shackles. She immediately tipped the bed to the left giving her cover. Just in time to hear the impact of a dart against its underside. "This is floor four, the girl is loose," she heard the guard report.

She freed her legs and tore off her other restraints. She was left with the heavy metal shackles but she decided she didn't have time to handle them. She got off the ground and dashed along the wall. Another dart flew by, but this time she was prepared. She caught it out of the air as it passed. She came up against the wall. The corridor was on the other side of it. And her guard was out there firing in from the opening set in it. She flipped the thing in her hand and jumped sideways.

She flew past at his head height just was he about to crouch down and fire at her again. Like it was a thrown dart in a game she let the one she had caught fly. It hit him in the neck and he tumbled back. She waited a few seconds. "But... someone... h..." the guard stammered then there was a thump. She didn't take any chances. She slid herself low out of the door along side the fallen guard and took his two guns. The tranquilizer had a magazine with two more darts in it. The gun was like her mom's service sidearm. A... 9 millimeter semiautomatic she remembered it was called. She picked them both up but put the semiautomatic in her left hand keeping the tranquilizer in her right for starters.

She went down the corridor checking room for room. She remembered somehow that the best way to enter was low and quick along the walls.

-------------------

They pulled up outside the hospital. It was barely visible from the staging point of the Seattle PD SWAT team that were getting ready. He then realized from the weapons the zats and the automatics that these weren't Seattle SWAT. As he started recognizing people he realized that the General was taking no chances and had put SG-12 and 13 in the field undercover. Teal'c and Daniel were there in disguise looking over a map.

"You just play nice," he said to Maybourne before getting out of his car which they had gone back to retrieve.

"Hey, guys, you were here fast," he said as Teal'c nodded in greeting and Daniel smiled.

"General Hammond thought it prudent to be swift so we found that a fast jet was ready to take us and the SG teams here and well a troop transport helicopter was ready to fly the last bit of the way along with disguises," Daniel explained.

"Okay, how's the layout," he asked and looked at the map getting ready to plan. Maybourne to his annoyance looked him over the shoulder.

-------------------

"Damn it," Simmons said after lowering his binoculars.

"What sir," one of his people asked.

"The SGC got here first. I just spotted two SG teams and most of SG-1 getting ready to go in. That hospital will be surrounded and sealed with us losing any chance of getting our conciliation prizes. Listen I need an unguarded way in. If this goes on they won't even implant Conrad and we won't get our own Goa'uld," he said.

"And the girl," his man asked.

"At this point if we try to slip away with her, they won't stop looking under every rock until they find us. No, if we leave her, it should be sufficient to at least throw off immediate pursuit. No matter what Conrad can't get out of there without either a Goa'uld or a bullet in his head. He knows enough to implicate me," he explained.

"I understand sir. Good thing we have a way in that shouldn't be on any of the blueprints," the man said.

"I better speed up the process inside," he said and opened his phone.

-------------------

Sam had checked nearly the entire floor. Buffy wasn't here, but there seemed to be a lot of unused laboratory equipment. A few guards had been looking for her and she had even seen a man in a wheelchair, but so far she had avoided getting caught. She needed to find a phone, a Internet connection or some other way to signal the SGC of her whereabouts and status.

-------------------

A lock of blond curly hair fell into her eyes. She wished she had a scrunchy to keep it in a pony tail. Steps echoed along the now darkened corridor. She had smashed the fusebox at the other end of the corridor a few minutes ago. She was actually getting good use out of her science classes. Strangely that felt both good and totally new in a way little else had done in a long time. The darkness would not hamper her as it would her enemies. She seemed to see almost as good in the dark. It was not like in the light but still good enough for her to fight by.

She watched as a guard got close to the first one she had downed. He couldn't see her from his position. She had lifted herself up amongst the pipes usually hidden by a drywall ceiling, but the slabs had been easy to lift out of place. She carefully aimed and fired the tranquilizer giving off a little hiss as the gas escaped and the tiny glass ampule flew towards its target. It hit him right in the neck where his blood flowed towards the brain. He fell prone in seconds.

Carefully she moved her position to the other side of the corridor sliding along the pipes. One of them was hot she discovered as she burned her hand. She ground her teeth together and made herself ignore the intense pain and quickly finished her move. She moved another one of the tiles to the side allowing her a new view of her target area.

"Hey, what happened," a guard carefully moved up. He was moving as if he expected her to be in her room firing out. He edged up against the wall and looked at his two downed comrades. She aimed and took her easy shot dropping another one however that had been her last tranquilizer dart. Which meant that she had to wound people now or knock them out at the very least. She put the gun down and jumped out her newly made opening rolling in the air and landing in a crouch. She went over, disarmed the guards who unfortunately didn't have more tranquilizer guns and moved two of them into her room.

She considered leaving the trap set, when she spotted the radio on the floor. She picked it up and listened. "We need to get lights back on that floor. The kid has taken out Jones and Rodrigo," a voice said.

Another was about to answer when she forced all her inner wild nature out into her mind said, "I am coming for you next," while letting her inner warrior set the tone. It came out ice cold and maybe even a little psycho sounding. She quickly put down the radio and dashed out into the corridor.

She knew where they were going next. Even if they suspected a trap they'd try to fix the power first it seemed. Thankfully hammering her recently removed left shackle several times into the fuses had pretty much screwed with that option, but still she couldn't take any chances. She drew the gun as she passed the stairwell and heard movement. She debated fighting them there, but decided she had too little cover in the corridor to fight alone.

As she slid into the room with the fuse box she heard someone behind her call out, "I see something by her room." She smiled thankfully she hadn't decided to hide all the bodies, but a voice in her head warned her they could just be faking their sentences while moving towards her using hand signals to communicate. It was a good thing that the voice in her head was suspicious bitch.

A closet gave her a full view of the fuse box and the door. She hid inside and left it just enough open to be able to fire out. She unhitched the gun's safety.

-------------------

"They are just outside. If you want to keep the symbiote you'd have to act now," his informant said.

"I can't the process isn't done yet," he replied and hung up. He sat for a moment contemplating. Maybe the stories were just that. He had never been able to find confirmation of any real danger. Either way his NID source was right. He had no other choice. He couldn't tell his people that their arrest might be imminent.

"Listen up, we're doing it now. Strap me down and get that thing into me," he said and guided his wheelchair over to his bed.

"Sir," one of his two cronies asked. He called them his mad scientists to Diana but they didn't have to know that.

"Listen, you can continue the research with that thing in me right. I am dying now. I won't be with it. You deal with the symbiote. Get it out of me when I am cured," he insisted.

"Honey," Diana his lovely girlfriend looked very worried.

"I have to do it this way. We always knew it was most likely to go this way. How could we have known that the girl's blood did nothing," he glared at the doctor, who looked away in shame.

"But it could take control of you," Diana said.

"Major Carter was able to subdue hers and kill it. If she could so can I," he said and cursed the Major who had eluded his guards for more than a half hour now.

"Excuse me sir, but we have to restrain you," his doctor said.

They suddenly heard a shot fired somewhere above them. "Get a move on," he commanded. One of the doctors left probably to check with security.

-------------------

She looked up. Someone had fired a pistol on the floor above. "Buffy," she whispered feeling ice cold fear gripping her. She went for the stairs again. She fought to remain careful and not panic.

-------------------

He looked up. That had been a Tau'ri weapon. "Someone fired a weapon," he said and looked at his comrades for confirmation.

"Right that's it. Everyone move out. You cover the area. You two go through the front. Maybourne you and I we take the backway. Stay together and find the girls first," Jack O'Neill said.

He nodded and with Daniel set out of the main entrance of the older damaged looking building. There was a noise, another gun shot. They increased their speed.

"We will have to abandon our ruse," he said as they came up to the door.

"No, I'll go in and distract them. You just start firing the second they look away from the door," Daniel Jackson said.

He watched as Daniel Jackson went ahead and quickly followed him inside trying to remain as silent on his feet as possible. He slid inside and saw two Tau'ri with their backs to him. He fired at the one closest to Daniel Jackson first, then quickly switched to the other. The Zat'ni'katel easily downed the two. He was unsure about killing them but decided that his comrades would consider it cruel and he didn't know if they had hurt his friends and so needed to suffer more. Of course if they were just doing their job they didn't deserve additional punishment.

-------------------

"Thank you for letting me help. I feel this is partly my fault," Maybourne said.

"Just be quiet," he said and slipped into a room he thought he had seen movement in. It turned out to be empty.

"Hold it right there," someone said out side. Through the glass wall that he could see an indistinct armed figure. He dashed around and out the other door. Quietly he moved up behind what looked like a guard and grabbed him in a sleeper hold. The long moments passed as always until the guard passed out. Maybourne stepped forward and took his guard.

"Hey," he said.

"Come on Jack, I am not here as you prisoner right. Now am I watching your back or not. I mean we do make a great team," Maybourne said and smiled. The weasel seemed to insist on suggesting he should betray his country and come work with him.

"Just go on ahead and be careful, there could be a kid around here," he said.

-------------------

She edged into the darkened corridor. She saw a figure lying on the floor against the reflection of the outside lights. She quickly ran up finding a tranquilized guard. She looked sideways and saw another two tranquilized guards as well as a smashed hospital bed. It looked like the other two had been dragged inside.

She heard a moan coming from the other end of the corridor. She turned and ran down that way. She looked into a room. And there next to a crackling fuse box two more guards lay groaning. Both had been shot in their right knee.

"Mom," a triumphant voice said from the room. She looked around and spotted Buffy crawling out of a closet.

"Buffy," she said and felt better immediately.

"You did that," she asked.

"Of course, I thought if I took out several guards there would be less or maybe no one to guard you. I guess if they had used you as a hostage for my surrender it would be a problem, but the trick to that is that they can't threaten you unless they know where you are," Buffy said.

"Thank god, you're alright," she said and pressed her daughter against her. She could feel Buffy's heart beating fast.

"Mommy," Buffy cried and suddenly seemed like a little girl rather than a dangerous warrior.

"Shh, it's alright you don't have to be brave anymore," she whispered.

-------------------

They moved out into a corridor which unlike the other ones was darkened. Someone was coming up the stairs after them. "Teal'c," Jack said.

"O'Neill, we have yet to find Samantha Carter and Buffy Summers, however we have just spotted a wounded man in this corridor, which has lost power it seems," Teal'c reported.

"Sir, we're alright," he heard Sam's voice from down the other end of the hall.

"Hey, everyone is here. Thanks," Buffy said and gave them a smile even while her face looked red from crying and her hair was matted with sweat and dirt.

"Now you're a sight for sore eyes. Thank god, you're alright," he said.

"Thanks, Daniel. I am not sure but I think they kidnapped us to find a way to get rid of a symbiote," Sam explained.

She looked at them then spotted something behind him. "Sir, Maybourne is right behind ya," she said.

Buffy seemed instantly alerted by her mother's tone. To his shock she drew a 9mm pistol from the back of her pants. "He's helping," Jack said sounding upset.

"What the hell. Buffy put that down. Drop it now," Jack nearly yelled. Daniel winced. He knew why Jack didn't want to see a kid any kid with a gun in his or her hands.

Buffy seemed startled but to everyone's surprise immediately dropped it as if Jack's word was her command. Sam bent down and took the firearm. Daniel noticed the safety had still been on. Jack looked around. "Listen we don't have a lot of time. Teal'c, you and Maybourne go up. Look for the missing symbiote. If you can get it safely, we'd like it for experimentation. If you can't then who really cares. I want Conrad as well. That bastard knows way too much and he has a lot to answer for," Jack said.

"Daniel, you're with me. We'll get Sam and Buffy out then continue down instead of up... Go," Jack said and they started heading down.

"Good work on that guard," Jack said to Sam as they headed down.

"Actually I was kept a floor down. Buffy took out all the guards who came up there. All five of them. We need to get an ambulance in. She shot two of them in the right knee cap," Sam said. Jack gave her then him a shocked look.

"Who taught you to use a gun," Jack asked a bit more intensely than he had probably planned.

"No one, it's not like its hard. You undo the safety. You make sure there's a round in, you aim and fire. If there is wind or a lot of distance you won't hit precisely but I had no trouble with those two men. I think I'd have liked a bow or crossbow better though," she said.

"What? Why?" he asked.

"They hurt more but it looked like it would have caused less bleeding. Of course I didn't look too closely so," she said and shrugged then got a faraway look. He had seen it before when she noticed she had just referenced something she couldn't really remember.

They got down to the ground floor and out the main entrance. Major Fallwell the leader of SG-13 ran up and guided Buffy and Sam to safety, while he and Jack went back inside.

-------------------

They had caught a doctor trying to escape by a fire escape. "I'll guard him," the treacherous man called Maybourne had offered. Teal'c did not trust him, but as they did not have any means by which to tie men except their clothes and he considered it unworthy to stun a prisoner he had agreed.

He had gone on and checked the remainder of the last floor alone only to return and find the prisoner unconscious and the traitor gone. He felt a cold anger flood his mind. Next time he saw the liar he would punch his lights out as O'Neill called it.

-------------------

They entered an active lab and he immediately spotted two problems. One was a symbiote holding tank empty the other was two dead people on the floor. "Neither of them is Conrad," he said. One was his girlfriend Diana Mendez, the one who had given Maybourne the brush off. The other was a bald guy in a lab coat, someone had stabbed in the eye with his own pen.

"Jack, there is a basement under this place," Daniel suggested.

"Damn, are we covering those exits," he said and remembered that they hadn't even had a clear schematic of the basement. If he knew hospitals well enough they were bigger than one building and usually they used tunnels to move stuff and patients between those buildings.

"We need to get down there," he said and headed for the stairs visible just down the hall. Daniel followed him.

They got downstairs and looked around. "You go that way, I'll go this way," he said and gestured left then right.

-------------------

He looked down a passage and saw nothing. It ended blindly. However there was a wet footprint on the floor. Without changing his expression he moved on back towards Daniel away from the exit just up ahead.

He stopped and waited with baited breath. A man in hospital clothes stepped out of the passage and turned towards the exit. "No no no, stop right there," he commanded and brought up his gun.

The man turned. His eyes glowed for a moment showing the anger of the snake in his head. "How dare you?" it started to complain.

"Oh shut up. You're gonna come quietly or I'll shoot you dead," he said. He was actually considering doing it anyway. Neither the man nor the snake had any of his sympathies.

"If you shoot me you'll also kill my host," the Goa'uld said.

"Well I was actually talking to your host. I am gonna have you killed one way or another," he said.

"You're bluffing," the Goa'uld said and turned slightly. He was about to fire when two shots rang out. His arm filled with pain and the impact on his vest sent him down. He blacked out for a little while.

-------------------

A voice faraway said, "Jack... Jack are you alright?" It was Daniel.

"I was shot," he said.

"Jack," Daniel said and helped him up.

"Damn it, I was shot from behind. Someone helped that snake. He's out there now," he said.

-------------------

It was a few days later. She was a bit uncomfortable. Not because of any damage done by those crazy doctors working for Adrian Conrad. No, because she was actually at George Hammond's home. Officially so that Buffy could meet and play with his nieces. Two really nice girls whom George adored. That was just a cover.

Buffy was in fact outside playing with the two girls. Buffy had been unwilling to talk to anyone except her and Buffy's psychologist about her experiences at the hospital. But thankfully it seemed that they had done little more than take blood. All the research at the hospital had been looked over and then destroyed.

"Can I get you anything, Major," the general said and sat across from her in a very comfortable chair. They were in his very cramped study.

"Sir, I wanted to talk to you off the record and quite frankly," she said.

He nodded.

"Someone has been watching me and Buffy with the express purpose of kidnapping my daughter. This is someone who works with the SGC or at least has access to SGC material," she said.

"The NID, Major," he replied.

"Maybe sir, anyway this has rattled me. Buffy is a marvel. She will no matter what path she chooses in life become great. That is sure. Orlin told me this. Her teachers tell me every time we meet. I know it in my heart. However I am afraid sir. My association with the SGC has gotten me my child, but I am afraid it might both endanger her and damage my relationship with her on a daily basis," she said.

"I am not sure what you mean Major," George replied.

"Well it's not simple. Buffy is a protector at heart. She wants me to be safe. She doesn't waste many thoughts on her own safety a lot of the time. She is still a kid and she knows what I do. This is giving her nightmares, sir. And furthermore I now have to add to this problem by having to constantly fear my own government and its agents. I... Sir, I talked with my dad on the radio last night. The Tok'ra wants us to come for a visit. Something important is up. They also insist that Buffy should come along this time," she said.

"You could just say no Major," he replied.

"Ah, no. I will take Buffy to see them. I am just not sure if I want to bring her back," she admitted.

"What? Sam you can't be serious," he said.

"Dead serious, sir. My dad has offered to take care of her. The Tok'ra have several very secret hideouts not connected to any of their operations and from where they never stage anything. Each cell of Tok'ra is given access to only two of those and each cell get a different one. Lantash and Selmak are the only ones who know about the place he wants to take Buffy," she explained.

"You can't be serious. What about her life, her school, you?" the general asked.

"That's why I am here General. I need you to help me. Please, I don't want to take my daughter away from Earth. I know the SGC needs me and that's why I won't follow her, but sir she needs to be safe here. I need her to be safe," she said.

"And the other problem?" he asked.

"I am considering if I should be rotated out of the active duty roster more often and only go out on special need missions like Janet. I'd do just as much good in a lab," she said. She knew she'd hate losing the active duty and directly doing something. But she couldn't keep it up anymore. Her career was not a factor compared to her daughter. And this way she'd still be around to help with the scientific problems.

"What can I do to stop you from making these mistakes Major," George said. He knew she was here to ask him for a solution a way to avoid doing some of these things.

"I want constant security on Buffy. I want a signed guarantee that there is no surveillance on me or my daughter at any time. And I want all research on my daughter to stop. I am not sure about the duty roster thing yet," she said.

George studied her. "I think that is only fair," he said finally. He leaned back in his chair and studied her. "Sam between you and me, I would do something like that too if this had happened to me," he said.

"Sir, apparently the Tok'ra have bowed to a demand by Selmak that says if Buffy disappears again the Tok'ra will attempt to rescue her and it may influence the state of our treaties with them too. I didn't ask them for that and I don't know how serious Selmak was when he said it," she said.

"Really. Major, why are the Tok'ra so fascinated by your daughter. This isn't the first time they've asked for her presence," he asked.

"I don't know. And no I don't like that much either," she agreed.

They sat for a while looking at Buffy and the girls caring for the girls' pony. "How is the Colonel doing?" he asked.

"He's complaining a lot. I think he is mostly angry that Maybourne tricked him," she replied.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: 

Sam stared over the pile of papers that she had to fill out. The amount of red tape she had to go through, just because their allies and her dad wanted her daughter to visit off-world, was astounding. Worst of all, it wasn't as though she'd actually had oodles of free time to take care of things since they'd made the request.

First there had been that weird TV show that had been made, and then everything had been further slowed down by Teal'c's predicament of getting stuck in the gate. That had given her a lot of pause at the time, fearing what Buffy would think if something like that happened to her. Buffy swore she was fine, and her psychologist Karen Wilder -- a nice woman who also serviced a lot of other personnel out of the SGC -- said that Buffy gave every indication of being able to handle the events during their recent kidnapping and their upcoming trip. Karen had even said that Buffy would be capable of handling a lot more than just a single trip through the gate. Her little girl seemingly had prepared herself mentally for things like danger and aliens, and had even spent a lot of time trying to understand how the Tok'ra symbiote and their host could get along all the time.

She sighed and picked up the next paper that she had to read or sign. She didn't really want to, but Buffy was psyched about the trip now, while her own enthusiasm had faded along with her fears of another NID kidnapping attempt, which had been allayed by Jack's capture of Simmons and his pet Goa'uld during the Teal'c-stuck-in-the-gate thing. She still, from time to time, thought about her dad's offer, and she certainly wanted to keep her options open, but for now she was no longer planning to move Buffy off Earth.

As she signed the paper she mused that it was astounding to her, when she actually thought about it rationally rather than emotionally, what she had been considering. It had to be the mother in her. Still, she did want to have the general move her off the active roster at some point. Buffy needed her home every day, not every few days, although it wasn't all that bad recently.

There was a knock on her door, and Jack walked in. "Carter, they've moved the schedule up. The Tok'ra want us to come now. Apparently they have some new scheme against the Goa'uld. We are having the mission briefing in 4 hours, and the Tok'ra will fill us in when we get there. You'd better go get Buffy," he said.

"Yes, sir," she half sighed as she rose.

"Listen, you still don't have to bring her along. They say they have several things they want to talk to us about, including a mission of grave importance. SG-17 is coming along to get their 'Introduction to the Tok'ra' tour. Poor them," he said.

"Right, sir... Jack, if they try anything with Buffy--," she said.

Jack just gave her a humorless smile. "Me, Teal'c, and all of SG-17 had a little chat earlier. If they so much as mention something you don't like, you just say the word, and we'll get out of there, guns blazing if need be," he said.

"The general is right, sir. You really should take your diplomacy courses more seriously," she replied as she grabbed her jacket and headed for the door.

"Oh, I study the videos very intently, Carter," Jack said as she stopped, remembering something.

"Sir, I am not done with the paperwork to get Buffy cleared for gate travel. Could you...?" she asked, and dared to put a bit of the pout in her voice, as Buffy often did, and stared pleadingly at him.

Jack gave her a startled look. "Of course, Carter," he stammered. She rewarded him with a brilliant smile and left before he figured out what she had just done to him. It was amazing what you could learn about wheedling favors from people by watching an eleven-year-old.

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She arrived at the school and quickly went in. She knew that she probably looked strange in her BDUs and glasses, arriving in a SVU like the one she was in, and the looks on the High School kids' faces were confirming it. Buffy was at the Air Force Academy High most of her time these days. On the advice of the specialists that she paid to keep an eye on Buffy's education, not to mention Karen, she had moved Buffy up to advanced placement in all her courses except French, which seemed to keep eluding her daughter and which remained Buffy's only 'C' subject.

She walked into the High School. The halls were filled with students milling about. She glanced at her watch. It was the beginning of the lunch break. She showed her ID to the security guard, who waved her past, recognizing her from their recent security briefing. She walked on by, while trying to recall exactly where her daughter would be coming from and going to next. She didn't have to look long, though -- she just had to look down the hall.

Buffy came towards her with her, riotous curls in a loose ponytail and a large strand falling into her face. She loved how her daughter looked dressed in a practical pair of black pants, a white t-shirt over a half open shirt and a jacket. It was conscious fashion choice for Buffy, she knew that much. Buffy had done it to appear older, although an eleven-year- old about to enter puberty and already growing quickly was still standing out so much that it seemed everyone knew of her daughter. She noticed that Buffy was earning looks and greetings as she progressed down the hall.

"Buffy," she called out.

Buffy looked up from greeting a pair of girls and waved to her. "Mom!" she yelled and ran towards her. Sam saw the little things that the other people didn't when her daughter moved, though. Buffy dashed through the crowd. But what people didn't notice in her passing was the coordination with which she moved. She saw Buffy literally slipping in and out between the crowd of students, only brushing a few while moving almost 15 yards down a crowded high school hallway. She smiled as Buffy stopped next to her and grinned.

"Hey," she said and lifted Buffy into her arms for a few moments. She didn't give a damn about any of the smiles of the people around her or the initial eye roll of Buffy. She did notice the pleasant smell of Buffy's favorite vanilla-scented perfume and her daughter's warm breath into her shoulder.

"Why are you here? Is something up?" Buffy asked, as Sam put her daughter down. She noticed Buffy had probably grown several inches since the day she had first found her in a bed aboard an Al'kesh.

"Well, your granddad called and said if you want to see him, then we have to go today. So we need to check you out of the school, get home for your bags, and then we'll swing by the SGC," she explained.

"Really, today...? But I haven't gotten ready. I wanted to have my hair cut, and I don't have any..." Buffy babbled, but she just quietly put a finger to her daughter's lips.

"I've got clothes for you. They were a gift from Jack," she said and smiled at the memory of the small package he had given her for fun a few days ago.

It had a miniature set of SGC-marked Air Force BDUs. Jack had gotten them made somewhere as a gag after he had heard of Buffy's coming adventure. "That way everyone at least knows where she is from and who she belongs to," he had said. She had been of two minds, at the time, considering it a strange gift, on the one hand, but on the other hand finding it a sweet and funny gesture.

"Jack got me clothes; I guess I literally am gonna go commando-style, huh?" Buffy commented.

She laughed and nodded, "Good guess." They headed for the school offices.

"Oh, god, I was right? Really?" Buffy looked up at her.

"Yeah, he got you a pair of the right size SGC BDUs with all the accessories," she said.

Buffy chuckled and said, "Cool." Sam looked down at her daughter in surprise.

"Cool? Coming from you, who I know this morning spent nearly twenty minutes deciding what to wear. You know it's a military uniform, right?" she replied.

"Yeah, I'd be wearing the uniform of the SGC. I think it is cool that you'd let me. I'll make you proud, I promise," Buffy replied.

Sam opened the door to the office and realized how her father must have felt, when she had told him that she wanted to be a pilot and an astronaut. She had not faced the thought before. But one day, Buffy would grow up. One day, all too soon, she'd be old enough to date, to drive, and then to make her own decisions. She sensed that Buffy wanted to follow in her footsteps one day, even though she had never consciously suggested such a thing. She felt a strange mix of equal parts fear and pride.

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Nearly one and a half hours later they arrived at the SGC carrying only a small gym bag with the things Buffy had needed, like toiletries and underwear. The rest Jack had arranged, too. They walked into the mountain and went through the security checkpoints with no one seemingly raising an eyebrow at Buffy's presence. Given that she had often visited, that was no longer a wonder.

She watched as Buffy's handprint was scanned into the security system at the third checkpoint. One of the scientists, Molly Hayes from Research, smiled at her while they waited for the computer to verify Buffy's identity. "Is that your girl?" she asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"I thought I recognized that charmer from your computer's background image. I heard the Tok'ra wanted to see her off-world," Molly chatted, as the screen went green and recognized Buffy, switching to a picture of a pouting Buffy. She remembered how miffed Buffy had been when they had taken that picture, right after they got back from Tollana. It would need updating soon, she realized. Buffy had grown up a bit after that.

"Yeah, something like that. Listen, Molly, we have to go; we'll talk at the next department meeting, alright?" she said as Buffy scooted up to her. Molly waved goodbye as she was next through the scanner.

"So, ready to dive into the deep?" she asked.

"Just point me at the gate, and I'll go right on through," Buffy replied.

"We still have a briefing, and we've got to gear up first," she said as they stepped into the elevator together.

"Mom, you think I can get something to eat before we leave? I am kind of hungry," Buffy said.

"You're hungry... Oh, god, honey, I am sorry I forgot. You didn't get your dinner or a snack. I am so stupid, I won't make that mistake again, I promise. Of course we have time for some food. The cafeteria here is always open," she said and continued to berate herself mentally. She often forgot that Buffy, for some as-yet-undetermined reason, had a metabolism like a furnace. She needed almost twice as much food as a usual kid her age. It had taken her and Janet nearly a year to construct a suitable diet for Buffy and get her to follow it. Unfortunately, Buffy had the instincts of a normal pre-teen, and so if left alone didn't exactly eat enough or the right things.

"Mom, it's cool," Buffy replied. Sam just nodded, already remaking the short schedule she had come up with in her head for Buffy's time at the SGC today.

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A very hurried two hours later, she was guided into the SGC briefing room. Her mom probably spent a lot of time in here, but to Buffy it was a place she had only seen from afar before. A big table sat in a room next to George's office, above the central command post. A window overlooked the gate room, where the technicians were getting the gate ready for their trip out. At least it looked like something like that.

Her mom had picked her up earlier and moved her along like a whirlwind, going from her school to home and then here to the SGC, where she had been given a quick examination by Janet, while her mom checked some paperwork and got her some food. They had eaten in her mom's lab, while her mom had given her a long list of things she should think about when going through the gate. Last time she hadn't really gotten to enjoy her trip, so she wondered if her mom wanted to suck a bit of the fun out of this one, too.

It seemed like everyone from Jack to her mom was nervous about her going off-world, which she found weird. She was strong, she could and would defend herself. In fact, she had come here from another universe, as her mom had explained several times before. Anyway, she had gotten into her new clothes, which made her look like a midget soldier from the SGC, although she had neither weapons nor much else in her backpack. That was another oversight of Jack's doing, but she had promised her mom that she wouldn't steal again, and so she'd have to go out unarmed again.

She watched as the General, Daniel, Teal'c and Jack walked in. "Now, look at that," Jack said with a smile and gestured towards her.

"That's kind of scary," Daniel remarked as he looked her with her green BDU's, cap with her ponytail out the back and her black backpack. She made a face at Daniel.

"I think it is a good way to tell the snakes that the kid is 'hands-off'," Jack said. She rolled her eyes. She was sure that neither her granddad or Selmak would do her any harm. An attitude like Jack's -- reasonable or not -- could ruin relationships.

"Well, okay then. Everything in order, Colonel?" George asked.

"Yes, General," Jack answered, suddenly all business.

"Major?" George asked, but then glanced at her. He was probably wondering if she could handle a gate trip. Sometimes adults were such fuddy-duddies. She was sure she could handle things much harder than walking through a wormhole.

"We're all ready," her mom said. She thought about her mom's rank. She had read somewhere it was rare for female officers to get extremely high in the ranks, but she was sure her mom would one day become a general or something like that, just because she was great. Of course, the universe might be more unfair than that in real life, but she had hopes for her mom.

George turned towards her. The portly general really cared about his people and somehow that also extended to her, she could see as much in his eyes as he studied her. Maybe she had been too quick to judge him a cool, distant, military man. He was a man of principles and rules, but there was a passion and an unshakable dedication to duty beneath all that, as well. It was like she recognized something of herself in him. "Are you ready too, Miss Carter?" he said.

She was about to correct him, when she remembered her mom had asked if they could make the change official a few weeks ago. She hadn't minded; she had legally been Buffy Summers Carter for a while, but only just these last weeks had everyone started using the term. She sometimes didn't respond to anyone calling for a Carter, or looked for her mom before realizing they meant her. "Yeah, sir... I was born ready," she said, unable to stop her mouth before her head told her that a smart remark might be out of place.

Fortunately he smiled. Jack barked a short laugh, and said, "Then, SG-1 and offspring, let's go meet SG-17 and get out of here."

Her mom bumped against her and smiled as they went down the stairs. She ended up walking next to Teal'c. "Are you sure this is what you want, Buffy Summers?" he asked as he descended the stairs with her.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Stepping through the Stargate could bring you into danger. Why do you choose to do it?" he asked. She had sometimes sensed that Teal'c was more worried about her than he actually let on. Apparently he had suggested to her mom that she could go and train with his master, someone called Bra'tac, after he had heard of her other idea. Thankfully, her mom had backed away from both ideas. She didn't much like being kidnapped, but she didn't exactly like the idea of moving permanently off Earth.

"Honestly... Teal'c, I can do things. I've somehow been born with or given the abilities I have, and I can do things. I guess I feel that if I can do something I should... Well, and to be honest, granddad being there or not... I really like having adventures," she admitted and smiled.

"I see. My son Rya'c is on Chu'lak. One day I hope he will choose the path of a warrior. But I cannot imagine that your mother would wish that life for you," he said.

"No, of course not. Deep down, you want to protect your son too, right? But I think it's worse for a mom. As a mom you simply cannot let your kid get into danger. It's like an entire instinct-thing, and it's all good. But for me, girl or not, with or without mom, Teal'c, I will one day soon be a warrior. I was born to be," she said and wondered where that understanding and those words had come from. She hated it when it happened. She could be in the middle of a conversation. Then she'd shift and it was as if there were a lot more of her in her head. It was there to tell her what the answers were and what her future would inevitably be.

Teal'c had given her a look, but by then they had entered the gate-room and she found herself in front of the Stargate once again. It was in the middle of the dialling sequence. Suddenly, while Jack talked to the other soldiers, the wormhole opened with a roar. She couldn't help thinking it looked a little like a toilet flushing and chuckled a little.

"What is it?" her mom asked, alerted by the noise.

"I just thought the vortex looked a little like a toilet flushing," she whispered, while Jack made some sort of sarcastic comment about the Tok'ra to some young lieutenant.

"SG-1, SG-17, you have a go," the general said over the speakers.

"Alright, let's get this camping trip on the road," Jack said and walked up the ramp. Her mom offered her hand but she didn't take it. She was feeling a little hyper and was raring to go. She felt like being a little naughty, so she ran up the ramp and jumped into the wormhole.

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For a moment it was like she was in tunnel of light going through space, as if on a fast roller-coaster. Then there was a flash and she flew out the other end of the Stargate. Buffy rolled and easily landed on her feet, coming to a stop after sliding a few feet in the sandy ground just past the Stargate. "What a ride!" she yelled, just as a shocked Jack and her mom came through the gate looking like they had just been surprised.

"Damn it, Buffy," her mom said, clearly not happy.

"What?" she asked, but couldn't help the knowing smile on her lips. Daniel and Teal'c followed, and then came the other SG team. She felt rather than heard someone approach and turned.

Jacob and another guy, a sandy-haired Tok'ra, emerged from the forest coming towards them. "Welcome to Revanna," Jacob said.

"Granddad!" she yelled and ran up to him.

"Kiddo," he said and lifted her up into a hug.

She whispered, "And hello to you as well, Selmak."

"Hello, little one," Selmak replied from Jacob's lips before returning control to Jacob again.

"Hi, Dad," her mom said.

"Hey, Jacob," Jack said and glanced at the Tok'ra at Jacob's side. She looked him over, but saw nothing too impressive or strange just trees.

"Ah, this is Aldwin. He'll conduct SG-17's tour of our facilities," Jacob said and started leading them through the forest.

As they walked she wondered why the Tok'ra hadn't moved their gate into hiding inside their base like they had done on Earth. She would have.

She noticed as they walked that they were split into little groups. Daniel, Jack and Teal'c were talking about what it could be the Tok'ra had planned. Aldwin was already telling the other SG team about the planet and how it was off the usual Goa'uld shipping lanes and not apart of the Stargate Network known to the System Lords. And her mom was talking to her granddad. It was about her. She edged close enough to hear, but far enough away to have them not notice. It was useful to be able to sense as she could.

"Why do you keep trying to get Buffy here? Every time I ask, you won't say," her mom complained.

"Because I've been trying to keep secrets from the others. They think Buffy is here because I want to see her, and because maybe some of the parallel Earth things we found on the Brotherhood of Thoth's mothership are hers. They don't think of Gate travel as a big thing. Tok'ra, Goa'uld, and even the Jaffa do it regularly. To the others it is commonplace," her dad explained.

"Dad, what's going on?" her mom asked in a tone that held something more like confusion than the earlier veiled anger.

"Sam, did you ever read the others' reports on what happened on that ship?" her granddad asked her mom.

"Yes, I skimmed the parts I was involved in," her mom admitted.

"Well, then maybe you missed the part where we found another survivor like Buffy. She was confined to a sarcophagus. The changes they had tried to make were constantly killing her. We took her along, but shifted her to a stasis container to avoid any damage from being in the sarcophagus. For months, our scientists tried curing her, reversing the damage done, but there was nothing we could do. Not even the DNA resequencers could help without a sample of her original DNA. We considered a symbiote, but it was clear the damage would be too much for it and both would die, although it would take longer. Aria, an ancient one among the Tok'ra, close to dying of old age, volunteered, offering it as her last good deed, so that the girl might live for a few months rather than a few weeks. Her previous host Mila had just passed, and so we woke the girl. Her name is Irene, by the way, and we told her about the option. After a great deal of talking she agreed. That was around the time I returned with knowledge of Buffy," her granddad explained as they started the walk up a hill. Apparently the Tok'ra had opted to build their base a good distance from the gate, too.

"You told them about the solution we tried? I am sure I could get her back to that planet and into one of the Ancient's DNA resequencers," her mom said.

"We already went there. It turned out the gate address was hidden in the Brotherhood's databases. It didn't work for her... at all, in fact. Buffy must be different from her somehow," her granddad said.

She was getting a bit shocked by all this. Buffy didn't understand the science mentioned specifically, but she had a good enough general science understanding to get what they were talking about. There were certainly benefits to being the genetic offspring of a Carter.

"Just after we tried Buffy's cure. I sat down with Irene and talked to her. She had avoided revealing much of anything about herself, so in the hope that she might be able to help us understand Buffy better, I told her about Buffy being here. Sam... I've seen many people react to someone's name before. From the look on Irene's face I could just tell. She knows her. She knows a lot about her. I tried to get her to tell me more, but she started insisting that she wouldn't tell me anything. She told me, she would only talk to Buffy," he explained.

"Do the other Tok'ra know about this?" her mom asked. It was like hearing Jack, all of a sudden; her mom didn't seem to trust the Tok'ra completely, either. There had to be something between SG-1 and the Tok'ra, some reason for the mild dislike that existed.

"No. Selmak has agreed that it's a family matter to me. And Aria is barely able to do much more than just keep Irene alive. Those few times when she talks, Aria has said nothing except insisting that she was right in preserving Irene's life. I wanted Buffy here so she could talk to Irene... and, well, Irene might not have a lot of time. That's why I kept insisting. I've even moved up this meeting so you'd have time to be together with Buffy and Irene, while they talk. Unfortunately, fate has intervened and I won't be able to be there too," her granddad explained.

Buffy felt almost like her head was spinning. There was a girl. From her reality, someone that knew her. Someone who maybe could help her with her amnesia and tell her why she was so different from regular humans, even while her body scientifically seemed normal. There was also someone who was dying, and that made her sad. She couldn't help wondering all sorts of things. What if Irene was her long-lost older sister -- that leggy dark blond she saw from time to time in her dreams? With how annoyed she was in her dreamed memories of that girl, they just had to be sisters.

"So here we are," Jacob said and came to a stop in the middle of a clearing.

She stopped and looked around. For a science-fiction-y race with a supposed secret base, it all looked rather rural. Jacob pressed something on his bracelet, and suddenly black metallic rings shot up from the ground surrounding them, making her nearly jump in shock. There was a bright light and they landed on a bluish-gray corridor. The rings disappeared up into the ceiling.

She looked around. Buffy was surprised at the intense amount of activity that suddenly surrounded her. Nothing on the surface even hinted at this place. Several people looked at her in passing; however, by this point in time she was used to it. Spending all her time at the high school had apparently prepared her for something, at least. "So, Jack, there is someone who would like to meet my daughter and granddaughter. The Council and I want to tell you about our plan, but Ren-Al here will make the initial pitch before I swing by," Jacob said and gestured towards a formal-seeming woman waiting nearby. She gave Jacob a curt nod and quickly walked off.

Jack, Daniel and Teal'c headed after her. "We need to go this way," Jacob explained.

"What are we doing?" she asked, trying to make the adults at least acknowledge that this was getting confusing to her.

Jacob guided them off into a dead-end and bent down slightly to look at her. "Buffy, I've kept pressuring your mom to get you here even though I know you needed stability -- especially after that mess recently. And I am sorry, but because of who you are, of what you might become, I want to improve your life. I know you think you're okay with not remembering your past. But there is a girl here, who is from your Earth. A girl, who knows you. I wanted to give you this chance to talk to her, to know about your past... And I am sorry, because she is also a person and she is... " She stopped her grandfather by putting a finger on his lips.

"Shh, it's okay. Granddad, I promise I can deal with it. And I would like to meet her... Thank you for doing this for me... and mom," she said and smiled up at her mom.

"Then let's go. She is right down this way," her granddad explained.

They left the dead-end tunnel and headed down yet another of the myriad passages of the Tok'ra base. They came to a room, where a girl of maybe 19 was resting in a small bed. She had intense blond hair woven into a braid that lay next to her on the bed. She seemed half asleep.

"I'll go talk to her," her granddad said.

She watched her granddad go in, but she decided against listening in. Her mom looked down at her and asked again, "Are you sure you can handle this? Because you know, it's alright if you want to wait."

"Mom, it is alright. Nothing she says can change how I feel about you and me," she replied.

"I should hope not," her mom said.

Then they both heard a slightly accented English voice nearly yell, "Buffy is here! Now! But I haven't gotten ready. She mustn't see me like this."

She and her mom looked a bit confusedly at each other. "Irene, she is standing right there," her granddad said and gestured towards her.

The blond woman looked her over and said, "It looks like her, but that can't be Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers is old, she is like, in her mid-twenties."

"Hey, who're you calling old," she bristled then wondered where that anger she felt had come from.

Irene stopped yelling and looked at her oddly. "Sounds a lot like her though," the older girl said to Jacob.

"Listen, what is going on here? I am Buffy Summers. Okay, I got infused with my mom's DNA here, but I am Buffy. I am sure of that," she said and stepped into the room. Her mom followed her in.

She noticed that Jacob walked over and activated some sort of thing in the wall and a shield of some kind shut out the noise from outside. "You can't be Buffy. You look a little like her, but you're way too young and your hair color is off. Buffy colors hers light blond. She isn't light blond," the older girl with the accent insisted.

"Damn it! I. Am. Buffy. Summers," she yelled. She felt the dark anger that she so relished in combat, but tried to keep suppressed otherwise well up into her. To her surprise the older girl jumped back and cast her eyes down to look submissively at the floor. The moment passed and the older girl looked back up.

The blond girl sat back into her bed and said, "Well, maybe you are. Aria says it isn't impossible that the ones who killed me also regenerated Buffy to a younger state, so that she might last even longer as a host... And well, you sure feel like her. Like the Slayer."

Those words hammered through her mind like a white hot knife through butter. "The Slayer... One girl in all the world, born... " a memory passed through her. It felt like both a sad and proud moment, as a chorus of English accented men's voice dictated those words. "Buffy!" Her name echoed again and again in tones of fear, of desperation, and of relief. Then came the flood of images of an older girl, looking like her, fighting -- always fighting, getting older, sadder, bent low by anguish, but always fighting, always saving people. Then came the words of that woman in the desert she had dreamed about weeks ago, "You think you know, who you are? You have no idea." And finally another voice, a feral one, said, "Death is your gift."

"I am the Slayer," she said.

Irene looked up at her and nodded. "You are what?" Sam asked.

"I am the Slayer. I think Irene is right, mom. I had a whole other life. I remember parts of it now. I understand why I always seemed to have so much experience, why nothing really scared me. I am Buffy Summers. I used to be older, but I am not anymore. Whoa, this is weird," she said and felt almost like her head was spinning. Even with the new memories and the ease with which the ones she had kept and the ones she had dreamed over this last year and a half rearranged themselves to make more sense, most of her memories were still missing.

"It's not like I can remember much more than before. But what Irene said is the truth. I used to be an older Buffy," she said.

Irene rose and paced the room. "Alright, things like that happen. Aria, my symbiont, has helped me to understand this universe slightly. She says that whatever they did to Buffy and whatever she was before somehow conspired to let her survive the treatment so many others have died from... Given her history, that is not surprising," Irene explained while pacing.

"Stop, sit down and explain yourself. What is a Slayer? Everything from the beginning, please," Jacob said. Buffy nodded; she also wanted to understand better.

Irene looked them over. "You're taking care of Buffy. You have to promise you'll keep doing that, no matter what I tell you now. Aria says that won't be a problem for either Jacob or Selmak, but I need your word, too," Irene said to her mother.

"I swear. Of course I will keep taking care of Buffy. Nothing short of someone killing me would stop me from doing that," her mom promised. She felt a stab of fear. Her mom dying had happened to her before, she knew that much.

"Alright... Then listen. My universe is governed by slightly different physical laws than yours. This allows people to wield supernatural powers. Also this means that our dimension, our Earth is considered prime demon real estate. Yes, in our universe real actual monsters exist. The list includes -- among myriads of other things -- demons, werewolves, witches, warlocks, and the most numerous plague: the Vampires. Originally the Old Ones, almost god-like demons, ruled our world, making war on each other. However the world had been created for the Humans, and so the very Earth beneath their feet rejected them. The Old Ones either left or were defeated and captured. They didn't give up easily, though. They interbred with the humans, and one of them bit a human and fed him its blood, making him the first vampire. At that time there was a group of very powerful human sorcerers. They captured a strong girl who had already fought the demons. They then reached into the deepest recesses of the demonic darkness and pulled a fragment of the very essence of the demons. They created or reached an entity, which we on our world call the Slayer Essence. They then bonded that fragment to the girl, shoved it into her and created the Slayer, a being of the light but at home in the darkness. The girl went and fought. Seneya, we believe her name was. In the end, however, Seneya died. And when she did, another girl somewhere on Earth was chosen as the next Slayer. It had continued as an unbroken line since then. One girl in the whole world. A chosen warrior until she dies and the next is chosen. In time the men's descendants created a secret organization to guide and protect the Slayer, called the Watchers. The Watchers found the potential Slayers and tried to prepare them for the chance that they would be chosen. It continued like that for thousands of years, building up traditions and flaws," Irene explained. She took a deep breath.

"Now, most of that is from my training, with many of the details only recently discovered at the time when I was taken from my world. The next part is hearsay and what I've been told by my trainers," Irene explained.

Irene continued, "In 1995 or 1996 on our world, a 15-year-old Buffy Summers, a Californian cheerleader, became the next Slayer. Unfortunately, the higher powers this time chose a girl who had not been detected as a Potential. She was untrained and unschooled in much more than maintaining a teenager's social life. The Council of Watchers sent her a Watcher and told him they expected him to return in a few months, when the Slayer had died and passed on her powers to someone more worthy of the honor. They were woefully wrong. Buffy, while chafing at the very thought of being controlled by stuffy Englishmen, which the Watchers were by this point, was also gifted beyond most Slayers before her. Within the first months of her being chosen, she killed a Master Vampire called Lothos. Usually a Slayer only had to defeat one of those in her whole career to be considered a good one, back then."

"Buffy's career would, however, turn out to be much more unusual. Within the next five years she would stop our world from literally ending many times. She would defeat countless demons, vampires including almost all the worst vampires left on our planet. She would drown, get hurt, and build a supportive circle of friends around her. She was unlike any Slayer before her. Every night she had to fight, hunt and kill monsters that wanted to kill people or even end the Earth. Most of the time she was all alone in the night. But this girl, who didn't even want to be a warrior, did it and accepted the costs of it. Then, in her sixth year of tenure, her fifth serving as the guardian of the main portal, the very gates into Hell, she met her second-strongest opponent. A Goddess from another Hell dimension. They fought over possession of an item that could collapse the wall between all the dimensions, destroying everything except the home dimension of the Hell Goddess. Buffy won, but in the process had to sacrifice her life. She died," Irene explained.

"That was how you became the Slayer?" her granddad asked.

"No, that came later. You see, as I said, Buffy had drowned once. That actually stopped her heart long enough to pass on the Slayer baton to another. That one died quickly and it ended up with the next in line, who hasn't died yet, as far as I know," Irene explained.

"Then how?" her mom looked at her.

"Ah, yes. You see, Buffy's friends from before included what is now considered our world's strongest witch. That witch and her circle of friends convinced themselves that, at the moment of dying to close the portal, Buffy's soul was stolen into a hell dimension. So they decided that they'd take it back by resurrecting Buffy. A process that was considered possible only because magic had killed her, and so magic would be allowed to undo the damage. So they tore Buffy's soul out of heaven, where it had really gone, and returned her to Earth. She took a long time to get over it. In fact, her friends have said that, after that, Buffy was never again really the same as she had been. Then the biggest thing Buffy had ever done happened. The act of tearing her from heaven had created an unnatural situation, an imbalance which allowed the First... I guess you'd call him Lucifer... It is the First Evil. The original sin given form and power to further its cause. It allowed the First to try and end our world. The First also, in the process, wanted to remove the Slayer line that had stopped its work for so long. It did so by killing the Watchers and trying to do the same with all the potential Slayers. In the end, however, Buffy came up with yet another world-saving plan. She had her friend make all the potential Slayers -- of which there were more than anyone had expected -- into real Slayers. Buffy then took her army and went into the mouth of hell. There, her army, along with the help of a human soul which sacrificed itself to defeat the evil, beat back the First and ended its plans for opening the gate, by permanently destroying it," Irene took a sip from a cup next to her bed.

Her mom was casting glances at her, but she just tried to take it all in. Irene's words seemed to stir feelings, rather than memories, and they were not all pleasant. Her body remembered pride, and strength, but also pain and the most intense sadness, beyond anything she had ever dreamed.

"That was how I got to be a Slayer. I was living normally in Austria. My mom and I had a good life. I was heading for university. I wanted to study history, you see. My mom was earning her pay as an architect. Then one dark night I woke and felt strong, resolute and completely unable to sleep. That kept happening, night after night, until I went out. I remember it was a Friday. I considered going to a club, but instead I ended up in a hand-to-hand with a vampire. I nearly got killed that night, but I survived. It took time, but slowly I decided to start hunting vampires. Then one night as I was getting my ass handed to me by two vampires at once, this blond woman shows up. She killed those two vampires in five seconds and then proceeded in her heavy American accent to introduce herself. That was the first time I met Buffy Summers," Irene explained.

"What happened then?" her granddad asked.

"Well, she told me about the new Watcher's Council, which in the end was made up of most of the retired or field watchers that had survived, along with Buffy's friends and her Watcher, Rupert Giles," Irene said.

The image of a graying, smiling man in very English clothing appeared before her eyes. She felt instantly like she missed him, as you would a distant parent.

"They were forming the Slayers into this super-efficient group. They felt that for the first time ever did they have a chance to actually defeat the evil that had befallen our planet. I asked to join and spent a lot of time training, until I was shipped back to join the team that was protecting Vienna and much of Austria. I didn't see Buffy again until just before we were kidnapped. Rumor had it she was retired, but there were also other stories that said she had gotten even stronger from her friend's spell and now led a group of the best Slayers in commando raids against demon nests all over the world. I only saw her again in Paris, right before we attacked a mansion filled with... Jaffa, I guess you call them. I remember seeing her going down in a hail of... Zat'ni'katel gunfire. That was right before I got grazed by one of those staff weapons. After that, I don't remember anything until they woke me up here," Irene said and looked at Buffy.

"Is there any way to know if this Buffy is your Buffy?" her granddad asked. She and her mom both gave him an annoyed look.

"It is her. I am sure now. She might be younger and she might have lighter hair, but I recognize the feeling of the Slayer in her. No one has ever felt the same as her. With me and the other Slayers, it is like feeling an attachment, like you're all sisters. I think it's because we were made at the same time. But with Buffy, it's like you're in the room with a tiger. You know you're strong, but that woman... girl right next to you could take you over her knee and spank you without you being able to stop her for long. I can't explain it. It is just something that's there. Some of the other Slayers -- mostly a faction that is a little too happy with themselves and smug -- think Buffy was arrogant. But they were just too out of touch with their Slayer to feel the truth of it," Irene explained.

"So I am a killer. Just a bigger killer than you," she whispered.

"No, no, no," both her mom and Irene pleaded. Her mom, who had moved behind her so that she rested against her, grabbed her in a hug, and Irene knelt in front of her.

"No, Buffy, you were never a killer. No human being or animal has ever died by your hand. I think if you hadn't enjoyed the taste of meat and had a Slayer metabolism, then you would probably have been a vegan. I've seen you let demons live another day, because they were no threat to humanity. Your first and truest love was given to a man, a soul captured in the body of a vampire. You're not a killer. You're a warrior, a hero," Irene insisted.

She looked up at her mom, "Listen to her, Buffy," her mom answered her unspoken question.

"I am afraid, I must leave you. Irene, I think it would do you and Buffy good if you talked a bit more, but let's let the initial shock pass," her granddad suggested.

Buffy couldn't help nodding.

"Why don't you and Sam come with me for a while? I am sure your mom would like to hear what we're planning. And I'll be leaving soon, too," her granddad told her.

"Come see me again, Buffy. I could probably tell you a lot more," Irene said.

"I will," she replied, feeling a bit odd all of a sudden. She knew Irene was only trying to help, but what she had been told was not what she had expected. She felt sorry for Irene -- the other Slayer was dying, after all -- but she still needed to get away to think, at least for now.

"I'll see you later," she said

"Yeah, thanks, Buffy," Irene replied sounding a bit dejected

As they left, she heard her granddad whisper to her mom, "I think Irene hoped Buffy's coming would change everything, maybe even save her life."

"You really think so?" her mom replied in an equally low tone. It was strange that people didn't realize that some of her smarts came from being informed through listening.

"Sam, you could see and hear it, too. She might not like that Buffy has been made young again, but she still considered Buffy her superior. The older Buffy must have been very impressive," her granddad replied.

-------------------------------

SG-1 gathered around. She had left Buffy with Major Mansfield of SG-17, because of a significant look from Jack, when she arrived. "The Tok'ra just got intense," Jack said.

"What?" she asked, her head still spinning from the story that other woman from Buffy's reality had told them. Buffy had not so long ago been a grown woman. A hero, a savior in a world apparently filled with the monsters of mythology come alive. She just couldn't imagine how things like that could be possible, even with the variations between realities she had observed from other travellers using the mirror. But then again, given all the facts of Buffy, she might just yet.

"Sam, are you here with us?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, sorry, sir, I just got some rather shocking news," she said, and noticed that Daniel looked just as distant as she probably had looked earlier.

"Major Carter, is Buffy Summers in danger? Should we leave?" Teal'c asked.

"No, it isn't like that," she replied.

"Well, get this. The Tok'ra want to have Daniel go to the first complete gathering of all the Goa'uld System Lords, posing as Lord Yu's personal slave. They want to have him kill them all, using some sort of symbiote-specific poison gas. All the Goa'uld leaders die, and the Tok'ra will then start the process of eliminating all the lesser ones," Jack said.

"Wait a minute, Lord Yu knows what Daniel looks like," she said.

"Yeah, but the Tok'ra got that compound that we received from the Reeyall to work. Your dad will get Daniel close enough to dose Yu with it, and then he'll believe Daniel is his servant until long after the meeting," Jack explained.

"And you're okay with this?" she asked Daniel, considering that it would end up as the wholesale murder of the hosts as well.

He looked her right in the eye and said, "They've been hosts for so long. They've been in the sarcophagus so many times. And well, honestly I guess I am. It has to happen, and this is the best chance we've ever had."

"Really?" Jack said and blinked, then nodded, apparently glad he didn't have to argue with Daniel about this.

"You're sure?" Jack asked Daniel.

"Yes, Jack," Daniel asked apparently not comfortable enough to belabor the entire thing, though.

"Good, then what the hell did they tell you, Carter? You look like they've socked you in the gut," Jack asked.

She looked up at him. "They just told me that when Buffy was stolen from her world, she wasn't a kid. She was a grown woman. The girl we all know... she isn't the real Buffy," she finally voiced it. She was deadly afraid of what that meant. She didn't want to lose her daughter. She didn't want to give up the image she had of her in her mind. But it was already crumbling. Questions plagued her. Would Buffy remember who she had been and erase the girl she loved? Would the SGC want to keep a closer eye on her, when they were told how much of a warrior they were talking about? Did the girl she love really exist?

"What?" Jack asked, a bit confused.

"When the Brotherhood of Thoth stole Buffy, she was in her mid-twenties, not in her early teens. They gave her amnesia, they somehow made her really young... Sir, I'm sorry, this has just... I don't know how to react. You'd think after all this time, after all that happened to me... to us, I'd be able to deal with this," she explained.

"Any chance it's a lie?" Jack asked.

"None whatsoever," she admitted, even if deep down she had hoped.

"I am sure it'll be alright, Sam... Did they just tell you that?" Daniel asked.

"No, there was a lot more. The quick run-down of what Buffy Summers' life has been like before she came here... Guys, she is us. She was the protector and savior of her world, but her enemies were biblical. We're talking about one girl against a planet overrun by monsters, and with only her strength, skills and wits to save her during a nightly struggle. Honestly, I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to fight a constant, nightly ground war for over seven years. She had been through so much, and then boom, she gets kidnapped here and turned into a little child. I just don't know how to react to this. Do I try to find a way to restore her? Do we just accept that this is her past and move on? What?" she asked and looked down at her hands. It was rare for her to become so emotional in front of her team. She had always avoided it, afraid she'd lose their respect.

Jack put a hand on her shoulder. "Carter, you take things as they come. Let Buffy decide the pace, and just be there to accept any changes in her. If you want to know what should happen, just let her tell you, when she is ready. None of this takes away any of the time you've already spent with her, and none of this can erase the fact that you're family now. So take this information for what it is worth, let it give you and her perspective, and then that is it," he suggested.

"You really think it is that simple... Jack?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do," he replied.

On either side of her, both Teal'c and Daniel nodded as well. They went back to discussing Daniel's imminent mission.

-------------------------------

A few minutes later, just as she was about to go look for Buffy, Teal'c approached her. "Samantha Carter, I have two requests, if you please," he asked, even more formally than usual. It was a tone she thought he reserved for audiences and rituals.

"Go on," she asked.

"I would very much like to hear the stories of your daughter's past exploits for myself. I also ask for permission to perform the ritual of protection on your daughter," he said.

"What ritual?" she asked, a bit surprised.

"It is a formal declaration performed by a Jaffa household. By declaring that I extend my protection to Buffy, I and my household swear to fight for and guard Buffy with our lives. That bond is such that even friends and allies would often join with the guardians to fight in defense of someone for the honor doing so. It is my regard for your daughter that moves me to offer this. Samantha Carter, please accept," he solemnly asked.

"Teal'c, I'll consider the ritual. I have no problems with your hearing about my daughter's exploits. Why don't you come along when Buffy feels ready to actually hear the details? We're gonna be waiting here for news from Daniel anyway," she said.

"I will give you time to consider," he said, and wandered off to find her daughter it seemed.

She decided to try and catch up with Daniel before he left.

-------------------------------

She found Daniel talking to her dad. They were going over some details, while her dad packed some sort of crate with clothes and equipment. "Daniel, could I ask you something before you leave?" she asked.

"Sure," Daniel said and looked up from the conversation with her dad.

"Teal'c just offered to take Buffy in under some sort of ritual of protection. What does it mean?" she asked.

Both her dad and Daniel looked surprised for a moment. "Wow, well. It is a declaration by a Jaffa, often made public amongst his allies as well, that a certain person outside his household is considered as important to him as his own offspring and family. In essence, Teal'c just told you that Buffy could at the mere asking for it, since she is a girl, have at least one personal guard from Teal'c's family at all times. Given the state of things between Bra'tac, Teal'c and other Jaffa, that would mean that every Jaffa loyal to Teal'c, Bra'tac even including Rya'c, would feel obliged or at the very least interested in coming and helping Teal'c rescue, protect or even just guard Buffy, if Teal'c calls for it. For example, if something like the kidnapping happened again and they got word, you could be sure a small group of Jaffa would arrive at the SGC demanding to help in the hunt for you. Of course, if they caught anyone they'd deal out Jaffa justice," Daniel explained.

"Yikes," she said.

"It is not something Jaffa offer lightly. Legend has it that the first relationships between those who became the Jaffa and the Goa'uld started as something like the ritual of protection. Still, Sam, after what happened recently I think you should consider it," her dad said.

"It could offer your daughter powerful protection, maybe even a permanent hiding place should your world ever fall and she escape," Selmak explained.

"It sounds like a decent idea," she admitted, thinking that given how her life went, she should just take any blessing and accept it. She said goodbye to Daniel and went in search of her daughter, whose opinion also mattered in all this.

-------------------------------

He watched Sam leave and turned towards Daniel. "Daniel, why didn't you tell her that the ritual also means Teal'c is entitled to a say in the approval of all Buffy's suitors and that Buffy is practically adopted by Teal'c's family, meaning she gets to inherit if she's the last survivor?" he asked.

"Because, Jacob, for one, I think Buffy could really use a safe place off-world in case something happens to us. Besides, Buffy's too pretty for her own good. She's not even twelve, yet, but already boys from her Junior High were asking her out on dates. Sam moved Buffy to the High School before that became a problem, though," Daniel explained.

"How underhanded... But you're right, my granddaughter is way too young to date. And I am sure Teal'c will approve someone when they get older," Jacob said with approval.

-------------------------------

She found Buffy sitting lost in thought, with Teal'c standing calmly nearby, watching the Tok'ra wandering back and forth. She berated herself for not paying more attention to Buffy after the revelations they had just been presented with. It seemed to have affected her daughter deeply.

"Has Daniel Jackson departed?" Teal'c asked when she walked up to her daughter.

She turned and replied, "Yeah, they left --" she glanced at her watch -- "ten minutes ago."

She turned back towards Buffy. Her daughter was looking at her as if trying to decide something.

-------------------------------

She had thought long and hard about what Irene had told her. Buffy knew that it was true. Something deep inside, probably her older self, told her it was. She had actually wished it wasn't in the first few minutes after leaving the now older Slayer. It was so hard to deal with the fact she had lived a whole other life, but she could only remember it as a set of distant images with some emotions attached. It was as if she were looking at a movie when she actually tried to remember. She was seeing herself, but she wasn't that girl... Maybe she shouldn't be.

She had found a corner where the crystal walls had created an alcove and some Tok'ra had placed a bench. She had ignored Major Mansfield and his team, until Teal'c had arrived and the other soldiers had gone off. All that time she had tried to somehow get a feeling, an intent, from that part of her that so often helped her in the past. It wasn't until she realized that they weren't separate -- that the other Buffy was still her, but that the memories of events were just missing -- that she had been able to form a decision. Her memories of her old life might be fragmented and some parts of her were still missing, but she was Buffy, and that now meant the old Buffy mixed in with her life as the younger new one. It was cool in a way, too. She was willing to bet that the old Buffy loved this chance to redo a great part of her life.

Sam, her mom, came walking up and talked to Teal'c. She looked up at her mom and thought for a moment. This wasn't her original mom, but Sam was her mom now. It was time to just accept her old life and live with the new one built upon that old one. She felt a little proud for deciding that.

"You okay?" her mom bent down and asked.

"Yeah, I think I got some of it all figured out. I'll be fine, mom," she said and meant it.

"How about we go find out where we're sleeping and then find something to eat? her mom suggested.

"Cool, I'm hungry..." she said and got up.

They walked around in the tunnel with Teal'c trailing behind, when her mom asked, "Buffy, Teal'c has asked me to allow him to perform something the Jaffa call the Ritual of Protection. That means he, his family and friends would protect you in case I can't. Would you mind that?"

She thought it over. It might be that there was more to it than that for the Jaffa, but Teal'c would not be conservative about cultural things. He knew she wasn't a Jaffa, and so she didn't mind. Teal'c was one of the nicest and most honorable men she knew, "Sure, I'd like that."

"I am happy to hear it, Buffy Summers. Once we have returned to Earth we will perform the ritual," Teal'c's voice rumbled from behind them.

"Ritual? This doesn't involve blood or feathers or anything weird like that?" she asked.

"We will swear an Oath and drink from a cup in which I will have put a droplet of blood, making you of my blood," Teal'c explained.

From some memory fragment words emerged, and she said, "It's always about the blood."

Her mom was looking at her with tired eyes, but didn't say anything.

-------------------------------

The day passed, and so did most of the next day. Buffy spent it with her mom, when the woman wasn't off to visit some Tok'ra named Lantash. And then she, in the company of Teal'c and occasionally her mom, spent her day with Irene, who looked visibly weaker than the day before.

So it was in the late afternoon they sat there talking to Irene, when suddenly the girl seemed to sigh and fall asleep in the middle of telling her about her former friends. "Irene!" she called, but the blond girl didn't react.

Then just as her mom was getting up to call for help, Irene shot back to her feet. "What? Where? Oh... not one of those!" Irene groaned into her hands.

"One of what?" she asked.

"One of the prophetic dreams we get from time to time. It's another Slayer thing," Irene explained.

"Prophecy... How? You can't possibly predict the quantum of the entire universe, so prophecy is impossible," her mom immediately said. She nearly giggled. Her mom had a science thing and a real aversion to supernatural stuff. That was also why her mom and Janet so often talked about her strength and wondered where it all came from. She had no idea, but somehow she felt someone like Orlin or maybe even her older self might have had an idea or two.

"It's rare but it's real. It was only the second one of my life. Most Slayers don't even have this ability," Irene explained.

"There are differences?" her mom asked, obviously interested.

"Of course there were... are. Buffy was one of the psychic Slayers... In fact, Buffy pretty much had access to all Slayer abilities, except the Sense most of the time. You see, some of the Slayers can detect demons just by concentrating. But for Slayers like Buffy it didn't work as well and took a lot of effort if it worked at all... but that is not important. Listen. In my dream this place was being bombarded by the Goa'uld. And it's soon, because you were still here, all of you," Irene explained.

"I am telling you, prediction and prophecy--" her mom started explaining in her lecturing voice.

"Mom, I remember. It happened a lot to me. You dreamed, and if you had a really intense one even during the day then you'd better watch out, because for me at least I think it meant that someone somewhere was trying to end the world," she said after a series of strange memory flashes. It felt like her older counterpart had feared these dreams to the point of actually hoping not to dream, from time to time. She hoped she never got back to being that jaded.

"Really?" her mom looked at her.

"Yeah," she said.

"We have to warn the Tok'ra," Teal'c suggested.

"And tell them that the girl at death's door had a dream that this place would be attacked? Their top secret base found out by the Goa'uld. They'd never believe her," Sam said.

"They might. Why don't we just tell them some whooper of a lie? Like uh... Mom could you fake some sort of message from Daniel with a warning?" she suggested.

"No, I don't know how the Tok'ra send and receive signals," her mom replied.

"Damn," she said.

"I am able to help," the voice of Irene's symbiont said.

She looked over the pale girl and asked, "How?"

"I believe what my host says, I too experienced the dream and know her mind well enough to know she is neither lying nor has her disease damaged her brain yet. Call one of my fellow Tok'ra here, and I will explain it," the being said.

Her mom got up and left the room with Teal'c.

"Buffy," Irene's voice said. She turned and looked at the clearly still weak girl. "Buffy, in my dream there was one more thing. You're their hope," Irene explained.

Before she could ask more, a Tok'ra walked inside carrying some sort of hand device. Her mom and Teal'c were standing at the entrance. Her mom waved her over. Apparently they considered it best to stay out of the way for this part.

Still from the corridor she heard Aria, Irene's symbiote argue several times in a language she didn't understand until the Tok'ra guard hauled ass out of there. "It is done," Aria said from within the chamber and sighed deeply. Buffy felt something, something she hadn't noticed was there, fade away. Sadness welled into her mind, but she didn't know why.

Overhead an alarm suddenly blared and a mechanical voice said something in that same strange language that she had just heard.

Jack and Major Mansfield came running up from the resting area they had used as their camp, while Ren-Al approached at a jog from the other end of the tunnel. "What's going on?" Jack asked.

"A Goa'uld fleet has been detected on approach to this world. Our position has been revealed," Ren-Al said.

"The warning was too late," Buffy said with a sigh.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: 

"We're under attack!" Jack asked. "Right, that's it, we need to get her out of here," he said and pointed at her.

Buffy felt a little offended. She thought that everyone should be evacuated, including the Tok'ra. "Hey, Old Guy!" she yelled as everyone except Ren-Al seemed to crowd around her and head for the ring platform.

Jack spun on his heel. "Don't call me that," he said.

"Jack, we need to help. Irene is very sick. I felt it. Something is wrong with her... And you can't just leave the Tok'ra to rot. They're your allies," she said.

Her mom spun about and looked into Irene's room, then ran inside with a stricken look on her face. "Someone, come help. I think she is dying," her mom yelled. A few Tok'ra, including the one that had passed Aria's message along, ran into the room as well.

"What's wrong?" she pressed herself through the SG-17 team and went into the quiet room. One of the Tok'ra closed Irene's eyes. She was not surprised. She had felt her sister Slayer pass. She had felt the death. She just hadn't been sure.

"Buffy, please, you need to go," her mom said.

Behind her she could hear Ren-Al saying. "The fleet will be here in less than ten minutes. We need to move as many men and as much material to our orbiting ship as possible, and then the rest will go through the gate," her symbiote said.

"But the trip to the gate takes almost five minutes on foot. We won't get everyone out in time," Jack replied.

She stepped out into the hall. She knew they were all thinking hard, but she had an idea, "Uh, guys, this base was secret, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Ren-al commented without really paying her any attention, then looked up as Aldwin came running up.

"Someone has dialled our gate. We won't be able to evacuate through it," Aldwin explained.

"Then we will evacuate as many as possible to the ship, but it will not be enough. SG-1, SG-17, I believe you should be among those evacuated. Proceed to the ring platform," Ren-al ordered.

She stood in the corner, looking around. There were too many Tok'ra. That teleporter couldn't take more than four or five people up at a time. Given just the few minutes they had, everyone wouldn't get away. "Come on, people. Move it," Jack ordered, and her mom gave her a gentle push forward. She followed along. She was sure now. She had an idea how she could help.

"Mom, this was a secret base, but whoever is coming has to know. He or she'd probably knows about the ship as well," she said as they moved towards the rings.

Her mom barely paid her any attention, either. It looked like everyone was too busy worrying to stop and think.

They were almost there, when there was more gibberish over the overhead speakers; this time it was a female voice, and it didn't sound mechanical. It obviously had an effect on Ren-al, who gaped. "That idiot!" her host cursed, Buffy realized it was the first time she had heard Ren-al's host's voice.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Anise was in command of the vessel in orbit. It serves as our mobile base and main research station. When several Al'kesh arrived ahead of the fleet, she just commanded our mothership to flee with all our scientists that were stationed up there. Rather than let anyone from the vessel get wounded or die in battle, she has taken the ship into hyperspace. If anyone survives we shall have her punished for her cowardice," Ren-al translated as the voice spoke.

She noticed her mom and Jack grow pale, then look down at her. "Oh, god," her mom said and pulled her close.

"Great, I am never getting off Earth again," she groused, making everyone look at her in shock.

"We're in grave danger, child," Ren-al said, as if she had to point out something so obvious to her.

"I know. Listen, you need to stop running around like headless chickens and pick a leader. You need to get ready for the enemy," she said.

"She's right," Jack said, "What can we do to help?"

Aldwin looked up, "We'll grow more tunnels to spread out the base in case of a bombardment."

She took a breath and was about to say something else, when Jack started ordering SG-17 to help Aldwin with the new tunnels, while they'd establish a secure post within the base.

She couldn't help rolling her eyes. Jack took another breath, getting ready to give them more orders. She cut him off, "Hey! Are you all suffering from low mental wattage? The Tok'ra need to leave this base. If you want to grow tunnels then fine, but go topside, make everyone run into the hills or the mountains or hide in the forests, and then grow some tunnels to hide in there." They all looked at her funny. "Hey, I heard Aldwin there say that the tunnels make air themselves until you can get life support installed, so there has to be a way to grow an up or down slope, as well as closing it," she explained.

"What good would that do? Together we can fight," Ren-al interjected.

"If it is a fleet of motherships, thousands of Jaffa will land and attack us here. You would all die," Teal'c said.

"We're still safer here with our weapons and technology available," Aldwin said.

"HEY!" she yelled again. "This isn't a committee. Your enemy obviously knew where your planet was. He knew about your ship and sent bombers. He will know enough about your base to bombard it and then send his troops in to mop up, when we are already smashed into a pulp. If what I remember of what my mom and others have told me about the Goa'uld is right, then overkill is the only kill they know. If you do as I told you, you will lose fewer people. Now go, take all the important stuff, set traps, do whatever, but be out of here before the bombardment starts," she said and tried using her most commanding tone. Not an easy feat when you were a growing girl of eleven, still on the wrong side of small and thin compared to everyone around you.

The Tok'ra blinked looked at each other, then Ren-al said, "She is right. Pass the new plan on to everyone. Delete the databases, take all vital equipment and weapons. And Aldwin, distribute as many tunnel seed crystals around as we have. Try to stay in groups of two or three... And listen on the emergency frequency."

"SG-17, go with Aldwin. Try and help him, then get yourself to a hiding spot. We'll keep in contact via radio," Jack said.

Her mom grabbed her hand, not saying anything. Jack, Teal'c, and she and her mom ran over to a big room nearby. It was that lab her mom had gone off to all the time. "What about Lantash?" her mom asked, while Ren-al worked at a console. The lights dimmed.

"I have turned off all non-essential systems; that means everything except life support, Lantash's storage, and the rings," Ren-al explained and walked around to the central pod. Buffy wondered who or what Lantash was. She had heard the Tok'ra name several times. Ren-al pushed a button, and a strange glass vessel with an eel-like creature floating inside rose from the table. Ren-al pushed a few buttons and detached the vessel from the table, then clamped a device with a handle on top of it.

"The storage unit will keep Lantash alive for nearly a day," Ren-al said and offered the heavy thing to her mom, who seemed barely able to carry the thing.

"Give it to me, mom. I can carry it," she said and held out her hand. Ren-al looked surprised, when her mom handed it to her without arguing, and it got worse when the Tok'ra saw her hold the container as if it was little more than a sports bag. She wondered for a moment if Irene and Aria had kept everything from the Tok'ra, because it sure looked like it.

"Let's get out of here," Jack said with urgency in his voice.

"Wait," Ren-al ran over to a round container and grabbed two handfuls of some strange crystals. Then the Tok'ra hurried from the chamber, back towards the nearest set of rings. Her mom copied Ren-al, then Jack led them from the room.

The traffic at the rings was intense and there were queues. Buffy rolled her eyes and said, "Why don't they just make a ramp to the surface? Anyone who waits here is likely to get killed," she said. Jack looked down at her with something as unexpected as laughter in his eyes, while both Major Mansfield and Ren-al gave her another look of surprise.

"It's jarring and hard to get used to, but the kid is right. Hey, Mansfield, you know about how these things work?" Jack yelled to the Major who was helping a harried looking Aldwin get the Tok'ra up topside.

Mansfield nodded, took a crystal from his pocket and hammered it into the wall. There was a glowing effect and a really high-pitched noise. Buffy had to grab her ears and held them shut while a ramp formed all the way to the surface. "Go!" Jack yelled, and as a group the Tok'ra and SG teams ran up the ramp. She decided to keep pace with her mom. She finally got to thinking about the danger. She had tried so hard not to, but it finally dawned on her that she was with her family running from a secret alien base so that they could avoid getting bombarded by spaceships. Somehow, it made her previous life seem less unbelievable. She was alternating between feeling exhilarated and scared to death.

They emerged into free air just as there was a descending whine. "Al'kesh," someone screamed.

"Scatter," Jack yelled and her mom suddenly grabbed her. She was pulled to the ground, which nearly made her smash the Tok'ra symbiote container.

Before she could look up there were several, all-too-loud explosions and orange flame plumed overhead. Gravel and dirt landed on her. "Damn it, we need to get to cover," Jack said. "SG-1, SG-17, on me," he yelled and ran for the trees, while more explosions seemed to go on all around them.

Her mom pulled her up. As a group, they and SG-17 ran into the forest, as did most of the Tok'ra. She tried to forget the smell of roasted pig in the air, because she knew there had been no pigs around. They ran among the trees, and she remembered for some strange reason that she hadn't brought a sleeping bag or a tent. Jack lifted his fist in a strange way, which seemed to mean "stop," because he, her mom and Teal'c stopped, then crouched. She copied them, trying to figure out what to do.

"Alright, listen, we need to find a safe place to stay, and then we need to figure out some way to get through the Stargate," Jack said.

"I got the crystals," her mom said.

"We have a few, too," Lieutenant Elliot, some supposedly new guy from SG-17, said.

"I suggest we hide in the hills to the East, much further from the base. A common tactic of a seasoned Jaffa commander would be to let the Al'kesh level everything near to the gate to give them a good field of view and flat ground to land on. We need to take over under an area still covered by trees. A deathglider will not be able to easily spot us from there, O'Neill," Teal'c suggested.

"Alright, move out, people," Jack said. They all heard a strange hum in the air. They looked up, and through the canopy of trees they could see the shape of some large starship descending.

"What are those?" Major Mansfield asked.

Teal'c, while keep his eyes fixed on the ships, said, "Troop transports, a different model of the Al'kesh. We should consider the possibility of hiding in the wilderness of this world long enough to let this army come and go. It should only be a few months."

Jack looked at Teal'c, then shook his head, "If we do that, the SGC will lock out our IDC's, or even worse they might send a search party. We can't stay here, Teal'c. I had kind of hoped we could take the gate long enough for us to escape."

"O'Neill, those Jaffa will clear the area around the gate, as I said, then land in their craft and make the area around the gate their main camp. Aside from the Tok'ra base, the gate is the only strategically important objective here. With the hatred between the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra, we can expect that they will not leave before their false god is satisfied that no more Tok'ra remain alive on this world," Teal'c explained.

They walked carefully through the forest as Jack and Teal'c discussed their options. Her mom kept out of it, seemingly more focused on her. "Buffy, zip up your jacket," her mom said.

She did as she was told. It was a bit chilly and her mom knew, better than her, how to survive on some alien planet. "Mom, will we get away from them?" she whispered, honestly not wanting Jack and Teal'c to know that she felt even a little bit of fear.

"Of course we will... But you were right earlier. This is the last time you get to go off-world," her mom said.

"But it wasn't my fault," she argued but couldn't help smiling. In the end, adventure or not, maybe safety was better -- at least until she was able to actually do something to help. "Mom, I promise I won't get in the way while we're here," she said and changed Lantash's container to her other hand.

"We need to move with stealth. Soon these hills will be filled with Jaffa patrols," Teal'c argued. There was a series of distant explosions almost like thunder coming from far away.

"It seems you were right, Buffy Summers," Teal'c said, "these Jaffa are bombarding the Tok'ra base with great precision." The bombing continued unabated.

"Well, sooner or later the Jaffa are gonna start finding Tok'ra here and there. The ruse won't last once they discover how they're hiding," she whispered.

"Damn it, I wish we had some of that anti-Goa'uld gas," Jack said.

"Ren-al said that Daniel would be taking their entire supply to the summit. I am sure if the Tok'ra had any more here, we would've seen them use it by now," her mom explained.

Ten, maybe fifteen minutes later, the bombardment stopped and they saw the Al'kesh fly back into the sky from their temporary stop-over at the crest of a hill. SG-1 lay there in the tall grass, passing Jack's binoculars back and forth between all the members of SG-1.

SG-17 was at the base of the hill constructing a small series of tunnels for them to hide in. Given that they didn't have the equipment for much more, they had to conceal the entrance to their tunnels as best they could. She had left the Tok'ra storage unit and Lantash with them.

Buffy didn't seem to merit binocular rights, so she had to make do with her other senses, and they were just telling her everyone seemed troubled by what was going on. They had yet to see any more of the Jaffa than Al'kesh and Deathgliders flying over the Tok'ra base and their landing site to the West, but Teal'c said they would show up soon.

It was slowly dawning on her that they were in a real bind. With the cloaked Ha'tak of the Tok'ra gone and the gate guarded by an army, their options weren't any many, and none of the good. Unfortunately, no one had really prepared her for this. She knew about the Jaffa weapons only from her fevered memories just after waking up from her kidnapping. She knew how to use a zat and had fired one. But she hadn't been allowed to train her combat skills much lately, nor had anyone thought off educating her in Jaffa and Goa'uld tactics and mentality. She was at a bit of a loss.

Then again, no one expected her to be any help. But she couldn't wait for Jack to decide to let her help. She knew he'd never ask. Her mom was a wild card, at the same time both more protective of her but also the one who understood her best. All her thoughts were for naught, though, because she didn't have a good plan yet.

There was a sort of descending whine she had learned to associate with the Goa'uld spaceship, but it approached from behind them. She flipped over ignoring the startled noise made by her mom. "Glider," she yelled. It seemed to be coming straight for them. She saw its weapons open to fire just like Teal'c's staff would. Adrenalin hammered into her body and her fears seemed to evaporate like dew in the sun.

The glider fired, but not at them. Its massive energy bursts slammed into SG-17 and flung them about. She grimaced. The next shots was a bit further up the hill. The pilot was walking his fire towards them. "Buffy, get down!" her mom yelled, but she knew that would be a mistake. If she dropped down here, she or someone she loved would die. Her legs started moving before she had thought more. She dashed down the hill towards her objective.

In a run she scooped up the gray, head-sized rock from the ground and in her mind the many hours of athletics training came back. She ground one of her feet in the dirt and spun her body as fast as she could. The next series of energy bursts caused explosions blanketing the glider from her view, but she wasn't looking until the last moment. The fire cleared and the Glider came in range. Using all her strength, all her reserves, everything she had, she flung the heavy rock at the left gun of the glider.

The rock sailed through the air with twice the speed of any spear ever before thrown by a human in this universe. It hit the weapon. She didn't have time to watch, as her mom appeared out of nowhere and tackled her to the ground. There was a huge noise overhead and the glider spun away, seemingly uncontrolled.

She pushed herself up, lifting her mom in the process, to see an explosion in the forest to the right of their hill. They had to leave soon. The glider couldn't have spotted them by itself. Someone had called it in. "Mom, we gotta go. Someone called in that glider. More might be on the way soon, and whoever called for it is around, too," she said.

Her mom lifted her up and brushed her off, while Jack and Teal'c ran past.

"Good work, Carter," Jack commented as he passed.

"Never, ever do something like that without warning me. I think I just aged a few years from sheer stress," her mom said and looked over her shoulder wincing.

"I can't promise that. If I hadn't done it, you might've gotten hurt... Mom, how many of SG-17 survived?" she asked, guessing what her mom was looking at.

Her mom looked down at her with sad eyes. "Buffy, we were going over the hill to take cover on the other side. It would have been safer for us to just return fire than you proving that you're never gonna be allowed at the Olympics due to the fair play code," her mom said.

"I'm sorry," she said berating herself for not having considered that much simpler option. She had just gone into battle like it was natural... Well, maybe it was, but she had to let her mom and Jack make those decisions. She was just a kid, and sooner or later something she didn't know would trip her up. She told herself to be smarter in the future.

Buffy winced as her mom took her down the hill. She guessed that Jack and Teal'c had dragged the dead members of SG-17 into the already finished tunnel. She looked around and spotted the symbiote container. "Mom," she whispered and pointed.

"Lantash," her mom said and ran over to the debris. "The symbiote is gone," her mom said.

They looked around until Teal'c stopped in front of one of the two survivors of SG-17. Lieutenant Elliot. "I sense a symbiote in this one," the huge Jaffa said.

"Lantash?" her mom asked, after dashing over to the side of the wounded soldier.

The heavily breathing Elliot looked up. "Yes, it is I," the man answered with the voice of symbiote. "I had to, I was dying and so was he. I am sorry I couldn't ask his permission until after we had blended. I promise once we have both recovered I will gladly leave him again," Lantash explained.

"I want to speak to Elliot," Jack insisted.

"I cannot help you with that right now Colonel. His mind is unconscious and I am too weak to speak for us. When he wakes, he will speak for both of us," Lantash explained then Elliot's head fell to rest against his shoulder with a sigh.

"Damned Tok'ra, would you look at that?" Jack cursed.

"Jack, why do you hate the Tok'ra so much?" she asked.

He looked at her like she was nuts for a moment, then his expression softened. "Kiddo, the Tok'ra are too secretive, too focused on their symbiotes and way more impressed with their own righteousness than they should be. I know your granddad is one of them too, but honestly, he is one of the few good ones," he explained.

She nodded, seeing that Jack really believed what he had said. She was for some reason very tolerant of the differences between races, and she could imagine that the Tok'ra believed they had good reasons for all their actions. They were secretive... And a bit too conservative for her taste, but they were also -- as evidenced by their current situation --persecuted viciously, and they fought their war using secrecy, sabotage and insurrection. There might be reasons for their behavior... Not that it really was an excuse to extend that behavior to humans, though. "I understand," she said.

"O'Neill, we should leave. I believe a patrol is approaching from the West. They may already know we are here," Teal'c said, and bent down to lift Lieutenant Elliot. She wished she was taller; then she could've helped. Her mom helped the hobbling Major Mansfield up and they ran further East.

"Sir, Daniel and my Dad have to return sometime in the next few days," her mom explained as they went deeper into the woods.

"Sssh," she said, having heard something. There was a strange noise then a staff blast impacted nearby.

"Jaffa!" Jack yelled.

She was without a weapon. She couldn't do anything. Panic and anger mixed in her mind. "Buffy, get into cover. Now!" Her mom yelled. She jumped in behind a tree. The others started to return fire, but she realized if they didn't move or eliminate the Jaffa quickly, then they would have hordes of them on their tails.

She glanced for a moment, then drew her head back as bark exploded all around her. There had been ten or maybe more. It was strange. Their staff fire seemed too random. She looked again. The staff blasts were really imprecise. Not like Jack and her mom's rifles. Or Lieutenant Elliot's, which was still slung over his shoulder. Jack and her mom would yell again if she did what she thought about. But that would be later. When they were safe.

She threw herself flat against the ground and while trying to forget that any low staff blast might sear her butt, she scampered over to Jack's hiding place. Thankfully her mom was too busy to notice, but she did hear Major Mansfield curse about something. She grabbed the weapon out of Elliot's pack. She checked it quickly, hoping the explosion hadn't damaged it. She rolled back into the grass and took a quiet breath.

She remembered how her mom had pulled her gun apart and put it back together so many times back at Winterhome. It felt like really long ago, but she remembered perfectly. One day her mom had explained all the parts, their names and what they did. Her mom hadn't known then that Buffy learned to use weapons almost just by picking them up. She switched the safety off and aimed.

She aimed at the knees. She wasn't much for killing people, especially Jaffa. They were slaves after all. It astounded her how easy it was. Fire a single burst, one down, fire a single burst, one more down. Only her strength kept her from flying back from the recoil, though. She realized her mom and the others must've already taken down several Jaffa, but that there had been a lot more than she had originally thought had attacked them. Still, these Jaffa were all too willing to charge into danger, as if they were assured of victory.

She took a moment to look around, while rolling to avoid a staff blast near her position. She came back to her original tree. There they were. The Jaffa weren't stupid. They were sick in their heads for sacrificing so many so that their ambush party could move up on them, but they weren't stupid. Four Jaffa were approaching from the side, taking pains to avoid being seen.

She opened fire on them. Single shots only. It was frighteningly easy. So easy, in fact, that a part of her was disgusted. Each shot hit something, unless the wind or a coincidental move of her target made her miss. She was aiming for the legs and arms. Only one got hit in his chest where his armor took the blast. The small, four-man group dropped into hiding, all of them wounded. The gunfire stopped. The silence was abrupt. One of the Jaffa she had pinned peeked out. There was a shot. The Jaffa dropped prone. She looked away in horror. She had just seen a man shot in the head.

She looked up and saw Major Mansfield giving her a look of deep pity as he replaced the magazine on his just-fired rifle. He aimed again and waited. The Jaffa made no more moves.

"What! The! Hell! How many times...? Buffy, when are you gonna listen?" Jack yelled at her, "You do not pick up a gun EVER!"

"Sir... Jack, let me," Sam said and put a hand on his shoulder. He threw her hand off, tore the rifle from Buffy's hands and walked back to Elliot with it.

"Buffy, we just talked about this. Please, you don't want this..." Sam bent down and looked her in the eyes.

"Mom, I can't help it. I can't," she admitted and started crying. It was strange, like a compulsion, she realized. When people were in danger, she just reacted. She felt like she had to.

"Buffy, you're not even twelve yet. You shouldn't pick up a gun," her mom said while kneeling in front of her and holding her cheeks with both hands, locking their eyes.

"Mom, you know I'm not really twelve or twenty. I am meant to fight. I know it. I feel it. I can't not do it. I don't want to fight... not really... But I just can't watch and let things get worse when I can help," she explained in a low tone.

"We've got to move," Jack said still looking upset. "We'll continue East until we're out of sight of the Jaffa, then turn South for a while at least," he explained.

She sighed. At a wave from her mom she went up ahead and walked in front of their group. She tried to think about it all, but when she did the fear came back and so she decided to just look out and immerse herself in her senses.

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Zipacna, the Goa'uld servant of Anubis, paced the floor of his ship's bridge nervously. His patrols had finally entered the Tok'ra base, but instead of the eagerly expected massacre they had only found a few dead. There had been a few patrols lost, but as yet no prisoners that would be of any use to him. That was a problem. He had promised his lord that he would bring back with him the recipe for the Tok'ra poison, or a prisoner who knew how to make it.

"My Lord," his first prime walked up and stood at attention. His eyes betrayed that he carried more bad news. It had all started badly enough with the Tok'ra mothership getting away unharmed.

"What!" he asked.

"A patrol reports back. They met with heavy resistance. Not from the Tok'ra, but from a group of Tau'ri warriors. They believe it is the Shol'va's group," his first prime explained and awaited his commands.

He thought it over. That meant SG-1 was on the planet. They were the Tau'ri's best warriors. He might be even further exalted by his master if he could secure them for interrogation. One of them might even foolishly have been entrusted with the Tok'ra's secrets. However, they were dangerous opponents and seemed already to have defeated his Jaffa in battle. In fact, it might even explain the apparent getaway of the Tok'ra on their ship. These Tau'ri were becoming famous for out-fighting and out-thinking the Jaffa and for having excellent intelligence capacities, although he was convinced that most of this fame was built on exaggerations. Maybe an undiscovered spy in their ranks had alerted them to their coming and they had gone to Revanna to help their allies.

But now they were caught on the planet. His army controlled the gate and his ships ruled the skies. Still they could elude capture for a while, and his master was not a patient ruler. He turned towards his first prime, "Take as large a force as you believe you need, but bring me those Tau'ri alive."

As his first prime left, he turned to his ship's helmsman. "Land my ship at the gate, I want any captured Tok'ra or Tau'ri searched, their belongings taken from them and then brought before me," he ordered and walked over to sit on his throne and think on this latest revelation. He knew the two motherships in orbit would be more than enough to handle any threat from space, or at least delay them enough to let him escape safely.

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They watched as the tunnel and room formed. "Do we have everything we need to get out as well?" Jack asked the now-conscious Lieutenant Elliot as another deathglider flew across her view of the horizon. Buffy wasn't really all that excited about spending even more time in a cave, but the idea was rather neat.

"Yes, sir, the black one will collapse the outer tunnel section, and the red square one will make us a new exit," Elliot explained, apparently drawing on his symbiote's knowledge. He at least seemed to be getting better.

"Good, we'll leave the door open until anyone gets close," Jack said, and the two wounded soldiers moved into the mountain, helped by her mother. Jack stayed at the entrance with Teal'c. From the looks they were sending her, she had better not join them. She retreated back into the cave with her mom.

She found her mom and Elliot talking about Lantash and his previous host Martouf. It sounded personal, and her mom looked like it was a painful subject. She listened anyway, because her mom might need her to have someone to share with later. Maybe that was the answer. She had wondered, ever since the battle with the Jaffa, what she could do, if not fight. How she could be useful to her mother and their chosen family. Maybe all she had to do was be there, listen and accept them... That was probably it until she was old enough to join up, anyway.

"He loves you, Major Carter. He is so glad in a way to see you well, but also that you weren't there to see him at his worst moment," Elliot said looking a bit pale.

"I shared a connection with Martouf, but I...," her mom looked away her face hidden in the shadows. Buffy knew her mom felt something at least for this Martouf.

"No, Major, you don't understand... Martouf loved you, but Lantash... well, he loves you... Heh, he doesn't like me telling you, but right now he can't stop me," Elliot whispered.

"Those feelings, they're not really for me. I had Jolinar..." Her mom said. Buffy knew about Jolinar, when they had long ago talked about why she could sense Sam even through walls. It was because they had both carried a symbiotes. It had something to do with a metal of some sort.

"No, Major. They were never about that. Jolinar just gave you a connection. For Martouf and Lantash what followed was honestly all about you," Elliot explained and leaned back.

"You get some rest, Lieutenant," her mom said and looked over at her. Her mom reached over and wiped a smudge of something off her chin.

She was horrified. She looked down at herself. She was actually covered in mud. She hadn't realized. She checked her hair, it had leaves in it. Her mom smiled and opened a pocket on her pack. Her mom handed her a comb. Buffy smiled gratefully and started making sure she at least looked presentable. It was important to her.

"Sam, come look at this," Jack walked up and pointed back at the entrance. They all ran out and saw a Goa'uld mothership descend in the distance.

"I guess they felt the gate wasn't secure enough, sir," her mom said, sounding very tired all of a sudden.

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"We need to find a way to contact my Dad and Daniel, when they return. If they can get down safely, they might be our ticket out of here," her mom said, waking her from her light sleep. She didn't stir, just listened. The cave was still open. Teal'c and Jack had covered it before nightfall. Her mom had put her jacket over her at some point. She actually felt moderately warm.

There was a cough and Lantash's voice said, "Samantha, when the Tok'ra base was breached a very specific and well hidden message was automatically piped through our sensor net, which will tell any returning operative to flee. Your father and Selmak will flee to one of our secondary hideouts, or maybe even further, given that someone has revealed our secrets."

"Really, couldn't we somehow manipulate that message and send another one, a different one?" her mom asked.

"It is possible. I will explain it to you," Lantash said. She felt her mom move away, and then quiet talking about crystals, science stuff, started that she couldn't even begin to understand. She closed her eyes again.

A little while later she was still trying to fall asleep, when she heard Jack and her mom exchange whispers. "You and I'll go, Carter. Teal'c says he'd like to stay and guard the others," Jack explained.

"I hate leaving her here, sir, but I am the only one who can do it and we'd be faster alone," her mom said.

"I'll tell Teal'c and Mansfield to stay in touch... let's say, every half hour," Jack said. A few moments later, she heard them leave. She didn't want her mom to go out there into danger, and she didn't want her to leave her here, either.

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Zipacna paced his throne room furiously. Anubis would not be pleased. His assault on the Tok'ra base had been a complete failure. Not only had his troops failed to capture any of the Tok'ra alive, they had also so far been unable to discover any further traces of the Tau'ri called SG-1. As soon as his first prime returned, he would destroy him. He just had to pick a proper replacement and find a suitable excuse for his Lord.

"My Lord," his first prime walked into the room. He pushed a prisoner in front of him. It wasn't a Tau'ri but a Tok'ra.

"Tok'ra Kree," he commanded. "Finally... I will wring the secrets of your kind from you. How does that make you feel, pathetic creature?" he gloated.

"I will tell you nothing," the Tok'ra said in defiance.

"You won't have to. We have other means now... technology beyond your understanding," he gloated.

"Thank you. I am Aldwin of the Tok'ra, and I defy you," the Tok'ra smiled and bit down hard on something. His eyes flared and went blank.

"FOOL!" He screamed at his First Prime and pointed his hand at him. Within moments his first prime was cowering under the power of his god. He enjoyed the screams of his former favorite Jaffa and the smells as his flesh and blood boiled. He released his anger into his victim, then relaxed and stepped away from the second corpse.

He looked towards a slave and said, "Get his second in command. I hope he is prepared to serve his god better than this piece of offal."

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"Carter, where is that darn thing?" Jack asked.

"We should still have a klick or two to go, sir," Sam replied. She was desperately trying to spot the small device that Lantash had promised was hidden in the middle of an outcropping of granite somewhere near this location. It was almost early morning, and it wouldn't be long until the time her dad had promised he and Daniel would be back.

It wasn't until the early moments of sunrise, hours later, that they spotted a small cluster of moss-covered rocks sitting in the forest. They crawled into the confines below it and found the bluish-metallic Tok'ra device. She immediately started making the modifications that Lantash had suggested. It would allow them to send a short series of numbered codes and coordinates using a Tok'ra cipher.

"So where are we going to point them, sir?" she asked.

"I don't know... The cave is our best bet. We also need to come up with a way to get all the hidden Tok'ra that are still alive away from here and back to the Alpha site... I guess we'll postpone that until we can get a few more resources together and things cool down," Jack said.

She knew that could mean many lives lost for the Tok'ra but the SGC didn't have the weapons or firepower yet to defeat a Jaffa force as large as the one fielded here. "I agree, sir," she said, feeling a bit bad because she knew she was also thinking of getting Buffy back home as soon as possible. Her little girl had already seen too much horror for a child that young, and she didn't want to add to it.

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The dawn cast its light into the cave, as well. She woke up feeling rested. To her surprise her mom wasn't back yet. She took up the comb again and quickly ran it through her increasingly sweaty hair. She hoped they'd get home before she became smelly. She rose, noticing that both Major Mansfield and Lieutenant Elliot were sleeping. She walked out of the cave entrance to find that Teal'c was standing watch down the hill, where he could look out under the tree line.

She walked down to stand at his side. "Morning, Teal'c," she said.

"Good morning, Buffy," he replied.

"Hey, you called me 'Buffy'. Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I am feeling perfectly fine. It was kind of you to ask. I was just practicing. After the ritual, you and I will be family of a sort too, and then I may call you by your first name as only family should," Teal'c explained.

"Really, is that why you're going to ritually protect me?" she asked with a smile.

"No... But you may consider it the reason, if you feel more comfortable that way," he said and smiled.

"Okay," she said. Since they both knew that he wouldn't tell her more, she didn't bother asking.

"So, otherwise all quiet? she asked.

"Yes, your mother did call over the radio a few minutes ago; they are currently reprogramming a beacon that will call help to us," he explained.

"Oh... Won't the Goa'uld and their Jaffa just follow the beacon's instructions, too?" she asked, a bit worried that they would get into a fight. They really didn't have the people or weapons for a big one.

"No, I believe they will not. Unlike the Tau'ri, the Jaffa method of warfare spends very little effort on gathering intelligence and listening to the words of the enemy. I believe the Tau'ri and the Tok'ra are very wise to do these things. Only a Goa'uld stands a chance of guessing it, and most are too arrogant to even consider it," he explained.

"Teal'c, did you just dis your own people?" she asked.

"I am unsure... What does dis mean?" he replied.

"Oh... right sorry. Dis... I guess it means put down... talk badly about, maybe," she suggested.

"Ah, well yes, I did. In many ways the Jaffa are truly uneducated, because the Goa'uld wish us to be so. However, the Jaffa are greatly advanced and most wise in the warrior arts and the art of war," Teal'c explained.

"One day, you'll teach me," Buffy said, and felt absolutely sure about it. It was a certainty that actually surprised her.

"I cannot. You are not a Jaffa," he said then smiled.

"I will be, right...? That's why you are doing--" she realized.

"Not entirely, but it has been a factor in my decision. One day when your mother allows it, I will train you, as my master Bra'tac trained me," he explained.

"I am gonna surprise you," she said.

"No, Buffy... You're going to surpass me," Teal'c said and sounded very happy about that.

-------------------------------

They slipped into the system, far away from Revanna. Jacob was piloting the Tel'tak with a worried frown. There was a message on the screen and an image showed up. He read the Goa'uld text. Apparently two Ha'tak were in orbit of Revanna.

"We may already be too late. I am receiving a message. It says: 'Base compromised, expect 100 casualties.' We can't do anything here," Jacob's shoulder seemed to sag at the thought.

"You think anyone made it out?" he asked.

"We won't know until I get you back to..." Jacob's console chirped again.

"Wait, there is another signal from one of the other antennae. It is a Tok'ra code... Let's see. Tau'ri. Survivors... and coordinates. It could be them. Oh, holy Hannah, my granddaughter might be stuck down there, or hurt," Jacob looked at the screen again. Then he bowed his head and suddenly Selmak was in control.

"Jacob is not feeling all too rational right now, Daniel Jackson. We must find a safe way to reach your friends and find out what happened without arousing the suspicion of those motherships, or any other ships for that matter. Fast and roomy as the Tel'tak might be, they are not built for any sort of combat," Selmak explained.

"I guess; what did you have in mind?" he asked, frowning at the screen again.

"Let us approach carefully and attempt a slow descent into the atmosphere. Any patrolling craft should overlook us, if we go in through a storm, then fly low along the ground until we reach them," Selmak suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," he agreed.

-------------------------------

"My lord, sensors on the ships in orbit report that there might have been a hyperspace window opening and closing in the orbit of the neighboring planet," the Jaffa at the console explained.

He thought it over. It would make sense that Tok'ra operatives would return from time to time to the base. He might have to emplace a garrison on this rock to make sure they all died. "Make sure the orbiting ships increase patrols overhead. Have them remain with sensors locked onto the upper atmosphere. Any cloaked ship entering should be visible on their sensor from the disturbances it makes in the air. If they spot anything, shoot it down," he explained, then returned to his seat. His host body was tired, but he would not allow himself rest for now. Three Tok'ra fugitives had been spotted during the night, but so far all except the one who committed suicide had fought to the death.

-------------------------------

They dove into the atmosphere, heading for a massive storm over an ocean. There was a sound and the ship seemed to protest. A spark flew from a panel.

"We've been spotted," Jacob said and veered off course, while increasing their speed. A pair of deathgliders appeared to be following them, firing constantly.

"I am heading for an area close to the coordinates we received. That way, if we go down and survive, rescue might not be too far," Jacob explained while another blast seemed to hit them.

"Our cloak just failed," Jacob said as a forested continent seemed to approach way too fast.

"Anything I can do?" he asked.

"Just hang on to something," Jacob replied as smoke filled the cabin.

-------------------------------

She heard a noise much like that of a deathglider, only louder. A smoke-trailing transport ship arched across the sky, followed by two deathgliders. They were still firing on it. It made a sudden but flat dive for the ground. She immediately knew that it could only be her granddad and Daniel in that craft.

"Teal'c, they're crashing," she said and pointed.

"Yes, a moment, Buffy," he said then reached for his radio.

"O'Neill, this is Teal'c. I am afraid our transport vessel has just crashed," he said and waited to listen for the reply.

"We see it. Sam and I are closer than you. We'll go take a look, you just stay put and make sure the kid doesn't do anything stupid," Jack's voice said over the radio.

"Like I've done anything stupid," she said and pouted.

Teal'c smiled and replied, "No, your behavior has been exemplary. Had you been a Jaffa warrior I would have been proud; but, Buffy, you are not. You are a young Tau'ri child, and you must beware. You would regret losing more of your childhood. I know this only too well."

She looked at him and nodded. She didn't have any clever ideas anyway. "I'll be in the cave," she said.

She walked back up into the cave. Major Mansfield was up and caring for his soldier. "Buffy," he greeted her.

"Major," she said and sat down next to the remains of her mom's pack. She was insanely hungry, but she didn't want to be a bother and tried to think about something else. A glint caught her eye. It was her mom's collection of tunneling crystals. They still had a good portion. She picked one up. It was supposed to make shafts and Lantash had said earlier that they probably wouldn't need it. She held up to the light and studied the deep purple refractions.

-------------------------------

"Jacob, hey Jacob, you okay?" he asked.

Jacob groaned, then replied, "Not really... We need to get out of here immediately. The deathgliders will be back, or some Jaffa will be here as quickly possible to capture us." Jacob rose and together they half-staggered, half-ran to the airlock.

They ran through the bushes and dove for cover, but the deathgliders seemed to have left. "We'd better go and find out who sent us that signal," he suggested.

"And hope it wasn't a Goa'uld trap," Selmak said.

"True," he agreed.

"The coordinates were in that direction," Jacob said and pointed South.

He thought he heard something in the sky. "Let's run," he said.

"Nothing like a good jog," Jacob agreed, and they both hobbled away at their best speed over the noises of the circling gliders high above.

-------------------------------

He heard someone running irregularly. He signaled Carter to stop and watch their flank while he glanced around the rock he was leaning against. First Jacob, then Daniel, both still in their "native" Chinese Goa'uld costumes, came running out on a dirt path. They quickly reoriented themselves and turned straight to face them.

"Hi," he said.

"Jack," Daniel said after his surprised expression faded.

"Kiddo," Jacob said, and then after a moment asked, "Is she still here?"

"We couldn't get away in time," Sam explained.

"Listen, we don't have time to chat. We have a temporary camp set up. We're gonna need food, water and heat, if we're gonna stay much longer. I'd rather get my necessities from a market than the forest, so how about we come up with some way off this rock with as many Tok'ra as possible?" he said, even if the last words seemed to sour in his mouth.

"We have this," Daniel said, and held up the vial of poison gas.

He had thought Daniel would have used that on his mission, "Say, weren't you supposed to... hissss, loads of dead snakes?"

"Yes, I was, Jack, but we found out that if we did, then one Goa'uld -- the one whose Jaffa are attacking here -- would be left in control of all the Goa'uld territories, and he already has a plan to destroy Earth... Although we don't know what that is," Daniel explained.

"Let's talk on the way back," he said and took point.

"Anubis is a grave threat. We know from history that he is an unusual Goa'uld, obsessed with accumulating personal power and technology. In fact, many of the best Goa'uld inventors have served him. Such as Thoth and many others. He was obsessed with experimenting on live subjects and went to any lengths, even doing things so unspeakable that the other System Lords could not tolerate him. A coalition led by Ra and supported by nearly all the others banished him. It was thought that a smaller fleet, led by Lord Yu, destroyed Anubis' last remaining ship and him along with it. Since then until today, everyone has believed him dead. Somehow, while out there in the dark of space he has accumulated great knowledge and power," Selmak said through Jacob.

"You think he is here?" he asked, thinking it might not be that hard to kill yet another System Lord, if they tricked him.

"No, he even sent a representative to a meeting of the System Lords rather than appear himself. He is unusually coy for a Goa'uld," Jacob commented.

"Let's pick up the pace. I don't want any patrols to find us," he said, hearing a Jaffa hunting horn in the distance

-------------------------------

"Buffy," Teal'c's voice shook her out of her thoughts and her desperate attempts at ignoring her hunger.

"Yeah," she asked.

"Your mother radioed a message in earlier. Your grandfather and Daniel Jackson have arrived alive and well. Their vessel was damaged in the crash, though, and will not be able to lift us to safety," he explained.

She wondered why Teal'c told her instead of Major Mansfield, but then realized that the Major had to be outside guarding and probably already knew. Suddenly there was gunfire outside, followed by the sounds of multiple staff blasts. One flew past Teal'c and exploded a hole in the crystal wall opposite the tunnel leading out. "Shol'va kree!" a voice yelled in challenge.

Teal'c, looking very angry for some reason, lifted his hands in defeat. She looked between his legs and saw the four staffs pointed at them. She felt the crystal in her palm. She had an idea. She looked up at Teal'c and gave him a stare, then rolled her eyes and looked at the ground next to her. He looked confused, she formed the words, "you" and "spin" with her lips and looked down next to her.

"I surrender. I am going to turn around. I will keep my arms up, do not shoot. The Tau'ri child at my side is not a warrior and cannot handle the dangers of battle. I am defeated," Teal'c said, while doing as she had indicated. He came to a rest next to her.

Two of the Jaffa approached, which wasn't what she had planned. Fortunately, the two outside stepped back and surveyed the area outside. Just as the two in front of her came to a stop, she threw the shaft crystal at their feet and jumped to the side.

She heard two screams that disappeared downwards then abruptly stopped. But to her surprise, Teal'c hadn't gotten out of the line of fire. Instead he had brought up his Zat and fired while going into a crouch. He fired for a while. Once, twice, three times, then stopped. "It is over, Buffy, we will have to vacate this camp. I will contact O'Neill. You will wake Lieutenant Elliot," he commanded.

She didn't waste time and immediately ran over to shake Elliot awake. She found him opening an eye. He secured his rifle and pushed himself up. "I am still weak, but with a little support I can go," he said and hobbled forward, clearly still in pain.

"There is a bit of an obstacle," she admitted seeing the three yards wide chasm she had made.

"I'll close it," Elliot said and threw a black crystal into her hole.

"Wait, the..." she wanted to stop him. There could have been survivors down there, but it didn't seem to matter to Elliot. She found it a bit sad, but also knew somehow that in war people died on both sides and you couldn't let that eat at you or get in the way of winning. It was a grim realization, and one she was not happy about reaching. Or was it another fragment of another person that still was her but not entirely anymore?

The hole closed. Together they left the cave. She tried supporting the wounded man as best she could but she was hampered by her height.

-------------------------------

"There they are," Jacob said as both his group and Teal'c's carefully came out of the forest to meet in a tiny clearing, surrounded by a particularly dense growth of trees. They looked none the worse for wear, even though Buffy had once more been in danger.

"Granddad!" Buffy yelled and dashed into Jacob's arms with a speed that would make a sprinter green with envy. She rested there for a moment, then went over to firmly take hold of her mom's hands. Carter pulled Buffy back so the girl could rest her head against her chest. Buffy had grown these last months. Puberty wouldn't be far behind.

"O'Neill, we cannot keep dodging the Jaffa patrols. Either we leave this area until they do, or we must strike at their heart," Teal'c said. Jack nodded in agreement and thought a little about the latest incident that had cost Major Mansfield his life and which had put two Jaffa at the bottom of an instant pit.

"I have an idea," he said. Everyone looked at him.

"Jacob, how large an area would that ampule of gas fill?" he asked.

"It would remove all symbiotes in a five- to eight-mile radius, then drift for about ten minutes in the air before becoming completely inert," Jacob explained.

He had a perverse thought, for a moment, thinking off Buffy throwing a rock with the ampule far, far into the main camp, but he would not endanger that kid by even taking her within one mile of that place. "I have an idea. Daniel and I will take the ampule and all our crystals, and get as close as possible to the main camp, then release the toxin. The same plan, if we get captured. On my signal, you'll head to the base camp and go through the gate, Carter will get reinforcements, and then we will get all the Tok'ra left off this rock, using all those leftover spaceships," he explained.

He, Daniel, Teal'c and Sam looked at each other. Then Daniel said, "Sweet! Let's go."

-------------------------------

Buffy watched Jack and Daniel leave. "What Tok'ra?" her granddad asked.

"Buffy kind of told the Tok'ra to get off their asses and do something smart. She had figured out what we should have realized... That the attack on this planet and the attack on the ship in orbit meant Anubis knew where the base was, and regular hiding wouldn't work. So instead of fighting, they took what they could carry and headed for the hills with as many of those tunnel seeds as they could lay their hands on, in order to hide. Ren-al mentioned something about an emergency frequency," her mom explained as they headed in the opposite direction from Jack and Daniel.

"Really?" Selmak replied, and put a hand on her shoulder. Jacob had been informed about the no-hair-tussling rule and apparently his symbiote had remembered. "Buffy, you have done us a great service. Maybe even prevented the Tok'ra making Revanna our last stand," it said.

"Thanks... Well, Anise and her group flew off in your ship, so I guess that's something," she said.

"Yes, but too little. Anise is not what most consider a wise Tok'ra. Her choices are often too devoid of humanity, for a lack of a better term in your language," Selmak said.

"I agree," Lantash said from Lieutenant Elliot's lips.

"Shouldn't we be more... silent?" she asked, and her mom grinned. The group did fall silent though.

-------------------------------

"This is insane, Jack," Daniel said.

"Why did you come?" He replied.

"Oh, I just wanted to point it out," Daniel said, while they watched a crooked tunnel form. Their little network of tunnels was very crooked, but given the size of the Jaffa camp they had seen earlier it was really no problem. They made it almost within a mile of the camp.

They made their last couple of tunnels, until Jack found himself looking at a ramp-up crystal. It was the last one they had. "So, when we do this, it will be complete chaos," he said.

"Do you think we have to hold our breath?" Daniel asked. Jack could only shrug, and then hammered the crystal into the wall. With a glow the tunnel started forming.

"Now!" he yelled.

Daniel pressed the stud on the ampule and threw it up the ramp. There was instantly a white cloud in the air that expanded outwards like an explosion. He was thrown back and slammed into a tunnel wall. He lay there for a few minutes, hearing the grizzly noises coming from above.

-------------------------------

"What is wrong?" Zipacna yelled and shook his helmsman, but the Jaffa just lay on the floor clutching his gut. He suddenly felt a stark pain. And lost control of his body.

He dropped down to the floor. The pain seemed to continue forever. "Finally I am free of you. Die, bastard!" the thoughts of his host yelled triumphantly. It was the first free words the fool had thought in decades.

"Help," he stammered, but couldn't bring up the strength to move towards the communicator that would have brought one of his loyal Jaffa to his side. "I am dying," he realized.

"Yes," his host replied, sounding equally pained.

"You'll die too," he thought. He fought to make the body breathe but failed.

"It is time," his host thought back, and all faded to black.

-------------------------------

"Buffy, stop!" her mom called out as they walked through the bombed-out landscape heading for the gate. She turned and looked at Sam.

"Buffy, I want you to put this on," her mom said and handed her an improvised blindfold.

She looked at the blindfold and was puzzled for a moment, then realized what she had been about to walk into. "Oh," she whispered.

Her mom took the blindfold and put it over her eyes. "Mom, will they be crying too?" she asked. Often even her mom forgot that all her senses were more sensitive than regular humans.

"I brought my CD-player," Lieutenant Elliot said. A few moments later she was enjoying a cello concerto from some CD. Her mom took her hand. Left only with touch, taste and smell, she felt strange as her mom walked her through something that felt like loose sand. For a long time all she was aware of was a strange sour smell and the warmth of her mom's hand.

As they walked she slowly became aware, maybe through some sort of sixth sense, of where Elliot was, where her mom was, where her granddad was. There was something else, too. She felt that she was surrounded by the dead. All her enemies were dead or dying, and a part of her was enjoying their defeat. She shuddered a little and forced that dark part of her down again by letting her fear and her empathy for the enslaved but now killed Jaffa drown it out.

There was a white flash that even shone through the blindfold and she was led up some stairs into the Stargate. She felt the metal grates of the SGC under her feet and suddenly, like a wave, all the repressed empathy she had felt made her cry as her mom took off the blindfold and the earplugs, and took her into a tight hug.

"Welcome back, Major. Where is the rest of SG-1?" the General asked, standing at the foot of the ramp.

"They are on Revanna. Sir, we need reinforcements to rescue the Tok'ra and recover our dead... Sir, could I please get Buffy into some sort of care now... She saw things... I really just want her safe in the infirmary before a quick debrief. The Colonel urgently requires our help, and if we're quick we might capture an Al'kesh or the like before any of the Goa'uld catch on," her mom explained.

"Of course, Major," the General said.

-------------------------------

It took another few days before they let her get home. Janet had insisted on examining her completely just one more time, and then it had been Karen her therapist, who had insisted she needed crisis counseling. But all that she had wanted -- her mom -- didn't come back until today. The general had somehow known that she needed her mom, because he had ordered her mom and the rest of SG-1 to take time off, at least for a week.

They sat in the living room watching a romantic comedy. She was almost sleeping against her mom's side. "Hey, sleepyhead, I thought you wanted to see a movie," her mom said.

"I'd rather watch an action movie," she said.

Her mom laughed and agreed, "Me too. We still need to fine-tune our communication, don't we?"

"Yeah..." She felt like asking some questions, their little exchange waking her up. "Mom, are Lantash and Elliot okay?"

Her mom looked at her and nodded, "Yes, thanks to us, Lantash, Elliot, Granddad and most of the Tok'ra are fine. Lantash can't leave Elliot for the next few months, because they were both wounded, but the Lieutenant has decided it is okay. Buffy, your ideas... you were brilliant back there... I am sorry, I didn't always react the way I should have. I just want to protect you."

"Mom, I want you to protect me. I like it when you hold me. It makes me feel safe... loved. But, mom, someday when I am older, I'll be a soldier, sort of like you," she explained.

"You know, I never thought you would just become some scientist or desk-jockey here on Earth. I tried to convince myself... recently anyway. But I guess that is not in your future. Not given who you are... how you think. I think, someday, I might even be okay with that, but not yet, okay?" her mom asked and patted her head. She didn't mind. Her mom was allowed to mess with her hair.

"You know, Teal'c said something like that too," she said.

"I know... He's a good man," Sam replied.

"Very... You're lucky you're surrounded by them," she looked up at her mom.

"I know that too... You are too, you know, surrounded by good men," her mom said.

"Good people, mom -- people, not just men... Mom, I think I've always been surrounded by good people. It feels that way," she explained.

"That's good, honey... So the Jackie Chan movie?" her mom asked.

"Yeah, definitely," she agreed.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: 

He walked inside and saw that Sam apparently had built up for the entire big show. Daniel, Teal'c and the General were sitting around the table in the darkened room while a presentation ran on the screen. "Sir," Sam said in greeting.

"Major," he said. Jack wondered why Sam seemed so formal and a bit distant.

"Jack?" The General gave him a questioning look.

He said, "I am sorry, I had to talk to Lt. Colonel Michaels before he goes back to the Alpha site. Apparently the Tok'ra are very grateful. They've given us one of those huge-ass troop transports and a transport ship from the ships recovered from Revanna. The eggheads are planning to tear the troop transport apart once they get it to Area-51. They think it would teach us a lot, especially about Goa'uld weaponry. The transport ship will fly along when they head back here."

"That's good news. The Pentagon will be pleased -- especially given the current situation. You'll want to follow this, Jack," the General explained.

He looked at Carter, who fidgeted for a moment before starting her presentation. "This was generated, based on our deep space observations after an amateur astronomer alerted us to the presence and approach of this asteroid. He has since been convinced to keep his discovery quiet," she explained, as a blurry picture of some sort of rock appeared on the screen.

"It is 137 kilometers, from end to end on the longest axis. It also seems to be made up mostly of minerals, instead of the usual dirty snowballs that come through the solar system from the Oort cloud. In fact, we were extremely lucky anyone even discovered this thing. It is on a very unusual orbit, making it a rogue. Unfortunately it's a rogue which, our calculations indicate, will intersect with Earth's orbit within two weeks, causing an extinction-level event," Sam explained.

"I've seen this movie... It hits Paris," he said.

Sam gave him a long-suffering look, then said, "Actually, our current calculations have narrowed its impact area to somewhere in the far North of Canada, or possibly Greenland."

"I understand that this is important and everyone should help with this. But why are we told? Are we going to help with an evacuation... Or do something about it?" Daniel asked.

"Well, if this had happened seven or eight years ago, we couldn't have done anything. But that was before the Stargate," Sam explained.

"So let's get rid of that with a little help from our friends? Or wait, we have two ships of our very own now; we can do it ourselves." Jack said.

"Well, we won't have any problem, then. We'll just go the Alpha site, get into the Al'kesh and fly here and... do what exactly?" Daniel asked.

It was Carter who answered. "We'll take a naquadah-enhanced nuclear warhead along and blow it away. This way, no one on Earth will ever know how close we got to being smashed by a rock. I was sure that the Tok'ra would at least lend us a ship after Revanna, so I have calculated the yield and called up Area-52 to fly in the naquadah we'll need to enhance a ten megaton warhead. It looks like it'll be easy."

"Say, when you put it like that, I just know there is going to be some sort of problem," Jack said.

"Really... sir," Carter replied with a daring smile on her lips.

"Major, I will call the president to get release of a nuclear warhead. I am sure we can get everything else we need from NASA. Would you be so kind as to arrange everything?" General Hammond said.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Oh... I also got orders that no matter if we succeed or not, the Alpha site evacuation plan will come into effect from 0800 tomorrow, just in case. Everyone who isn't essential of the SGC personnel, our families, and the people on the Alpha list will start going through the gate... Major, you might want to prepare your daughter: she is going out as apart of Team 8 on the Alpha list. Meaning that, given briefings and other activities, she'll go out sometime the day after tomorrow," the general explained.

Jack couldn't help smiling at the totally shocked expression on Carter's face. She hadn't known about the General and his little idea of getting Buffy on the Alpha list, as well as on the family list. That meant she was a high-priority evacuee and would be one of the first ones through the gate every time there was a world-ending level threat. Important as their families were, the SGC and Pentagon would not give them priority over the eventual rebuilders of human society. The maintainers of the Alpha list at the Pentagon included a few old friends of the General's, and combined with Buffy's abilities and skills, she had easily come onto that other list as an important person.

"Sir, but... I didn't know Buffy was on the list. Isn't she too young to be eligible?" Sam asked.

"No, the list is for the young and able. She is both. Now, Major, you have your orders. Get it in motion, people," the General said and turned towards his office -- probably going to make a lot of phone calls.

"It's really nice, but Buffy shouldn't get preferential treatment because of me," Sam protested.

"No worries, she didn't. The paper-pushers at the Pentagon decided she was a prime candidate all on their own. You just get her here the day after tomorrow... If she is willing to go through the gate again, after what happened the last time," Jack said.

"Oh, she is willing, sir; that will never be an issue," Sam said and headed downstairs.

-------------------------------

She waited to tell Buffy about her coming trip until morning the next day, mostly because she had not been able to do much more than go pick her daughter up from school, drive her over to Janet's, and then head back to the SGC, that first day. The formalities in moving around a nuke were astounding even with the world's safety at stake. She felt incredibly driven to make her world safe, but somehow the thought that her quickly growing daughter would be safe at the Alpha site gave her incredible peace of mind. She would do her all to make sure her daughter had a world to return to. And that all the daughters and mothers of Earth would come through this alive.

"Mom, you're doing the quiet thoughtful thing again," Buffy said after finishing her cereal. Her daughter grabbed the banana on her plate and started peeling it.

"Oh, sorry... Buffy, you have a good day in school today, because tomorrow you're going on a trip off-world," she admitted.

Buffy blinked, then smiled widely. "You're letting me go out again, but I thought you said back on Revanna that I was never going off-world again," her daughter said.

"Well, honestly, I may have overreacted. I... ah... Listen, Buffy, there are reasons for this trip too... Oh... I can't lie to you, but I can't tell you the reasons yet, either, because I am not allowed. You'll get to spend a few days at the Alpha site -- our off-world base -- with your granddad and then you'll come back here," she said.

Buffy studied her for a short time, then said, "Okay, I won't ask for now."

"So, what's happening at school today?" Sam asked, while trying and failing to remember her daughter's schedule.

"Loads of AP classes, as usual. Oh, and Tawny is taking me to my Aikido class. Master Ando says that I'll have to train a month and I'll be done," Buffy explained.

"That is so great. That makes how many now?" she asked, while trying to remember how many different martial arts Buffy had been trained in and had mastered all the moves of. It was something Tawny and Buffy had come up with a half year ago. Buffy didn't really need to learn all of a martial art to use it, so Buffy usually went to each class for a few weeks to a month, watched all the moves, and then went for the next one. It didn't give her daughter any belts or grades, but it seemed that a bit of training and seeing all the moves of a martial art was enough for Buffy to integrate it practically into her fighting style.

"I knew Karate, Tae-kwon-do, Tai-chi, and Kickboxing from my past and I've added Judo, Jujitsu, the special forces fighting style Tawny knew, and I am working on Aikido," her daughter explained.

She was puzzled for a moment and asked, "Buffy, I don't remember you knowing Tai-chi from before. Are you sure you knew it already?"

"Yeah... I think I forgot to tell you. Sorry. We found out a while back, when Tawny and Master Ando tried to teach me meditation. I used these slow moves to find my center, which Master Ando recognized as Tai-chi. So Tawny took me to a Chinese guy, who knew Tai-chi, and when he tested me, I found out I was actually good at it. Good enough to make him go all googly-eyed and make strange happy noises. He said that it's an ability I should treasure. I am not sure if I do yet," Buffy explained.

"Oh, well that's good," she said, and sighed in her mind. She had missed something again. She hated when that happened.

"By the way, Mom, Chris and the other guys running the AP program for me said you should call them, they needed to talk to you about something. I am pretty sure it isn't my grades. I am averaging an 'A' right now in everything but French. I swear that language is my nemesis," Buffy grumbled.

"I'll visit them today after I get you to class. Speaking of class, go get the last bit ready and grab your bag: we're moving out in 8 minutes," she said after checking the clock on the kitchen wall.

A few minutes later as she was buckling up next to her daughter, who had woven her bangs into a braid that fell to the left of her face and was dressed in the same conservative get-up she often used in school -- just a skirt and a tie away from an English schoolgirl's outfit. "You know, you look a bit Harry Potter-ish in that get-up," she commented as she steered the SUV with its locked doors and hidden military-class armor out of the garage.

"Yeah, I am a tie and a robe away from being a Gryffindor," Buffy eagerly commented.

"So, you're a Hermione, now," she said perfectly pronouncing the name from the book series that her daughter currently adored.

"Or a Ginny, but yeah, wouldn't that be neat?" Buffy agreed.

"Sure... Uh, Buffy, I was thinking that maybe Daniel could tutor you in French. If anyone could teach you, it would be him, right?" she suggested.

Buffy gave her a bright smile -- a testament to the changes she had wrought in the originally so school-disaffected girl. "Sure, that would be great. Danny would be perfect. You know, if you didn't have the hots for Jack, then you should totally go for Danny instead," Buffy gushed.

Sam could feel her cheeks burning slightly at her daughter's comment. "Buffy, I don't have the 'hots' for the Colonel."

"Yeah, sure, and 'de Nile' is just a river in Egypt," her daughter fired back with a teasing smile.

"Well, I don't see you dragging any boys back home, either," Sam retorted.

"Pffft, Mom, like I could. I know I don't stand a chance of having a boyfriend until I can, like, drive, or something. Jack would try to stalk him. Teal'c would probably accidentally show up and be all silent and disapproving. I have no idea what Daniel would do, but I am sure the one arranging it all would be you, and I'd never be able to prove it... Besides, all the boys I see every day are, like, 4 years older than me. I might think some boy is cute, but honestly, I know you wouldn't let me date a high school boy until I was, like, their age," her daughter explained.

Sam said nothing, deciding instead to just smile mysteriously. She knew Buffy would make up her own mind, but being mysterious might actually keep her already good-looking daughter from dating a while longer, which was just fine with her. Of course, she would have to save the Earth in order to prevent her daughter from having to date a Jaffa or some military officer from the Alpha site, but that somehow felt like less of a problem.

They drove onto the grounds of Buffy's school.

-------------------------------

"So, I totally wiped the floor with that asshole. I kept him pinned until he cried 'uncle'. Of course I didn't let him go until Coach came over and told me to, but hey, if you can't pick on geeks, what else is there to do around here?" he told his buddy Andy as they walked down the halls of their High School.

"Yo, Diego, look -- it's your nemesis," Andy said and grinned.

He looked down the hall and saw a tall lady with short hair walking in with the bane of his existence. It was the special kid. That tiny little kid, who had been moved up from Junior way before her time, had nearly cost him all his hard-earned respect.

One day last autumn he was picked to show her a few wrestling moves by his coach. He had felt bad about having to manhandle a kid and a girl, but coach had just told him to put her in simple pin. He had just apologized to the kid -- his mom had at least taught him to be polite to girls, especially little dainty ones like this one -- and grabbed her.

He still remembered the flight she had taken him on. She had grabbed his hand, flipped him over, and in some manner that still puzzled him held him to the mat, even though he weighed twice as much as she did.

He remembered convincing himself it had been a fluke, but when, on his second and third attempts to pin her, she just threw him outside the ring, he had slowly become unable to consider it that anymore. He should have yelled at Coach for not doing it in private. He could still hear the laughter of the rest of his team ringing in his ears. The kid – Buffy, rumor had it her name was -- had thanked him for the training and gone off with one of those adults that seemed to swarm around her unless there was a longer break.

It had been a few days after that when he had decided he couldn't take the mockery of his team any more and went for the kid. He was sure that if he humiliated her most of the talk about him would go away. So one day during lunch hour, he had grabbed her and dragged his unusually unresisting victim into an empty toilet. What had happened in there when they were alone still puzzled him. The kid had just suddenly said, "all right, this will do." She had grabbed his hands and forced his grip open. Then she had just as carefully kept her grip on his hands while she pulled him down to her height.

"Listen, Diego... Yeah, I know your name. I know you're a bully. I am not a victim kind of girl. If you ever touch me again, I will stick you head first into a toilet, like you like to do to the other guys in some of my AP courses. If you come after me again after that… well, let's just say it only gets worse from here on in," she threatened him, while squeezing his thumbs hard enough to make him want to yell out in pain. Only his pride had stopped him in the end.

After that, she had just let go and left. He had kept away from her for months, and the kid did keep a funny schedule, but a few months back he had taken to rebuilding his reputation by harassing a junior... a geek called Anna. He had been preparing one day to blow a spit ball at her, when the kid had somehow slipped up next to him without him noticing and said, "You never seem to learn. Leave other people alone, if you can't be nice. You're scarring all those you hurt for life. You ever actually think about that? Do you have some sort of excuse?"

He remembered turning towards her and firing the spit ball at the kid instead. In the end that had become his fatal mistake. The girl had wiped the combined spit and paper wad off her face and quite simply grabbed his belt. He had tried to move away, free himself, but aside from dropping his pants in the middle of the hall there had been no way. She had dragged him into a stall in the girl's bathroom and, in a stunt he still couldn't imagine being physically possible, up-ended him into the toilet and flushed. His head had been hurt and spinning from the impact, he had been spitting and dripping water, but still the girl's words had gotten through to him. "If you ever haze or harass anyone in my sight again, I will find a way to make your life very difficult. Stop doing it. In the end, you'll feel better and maybe you'll be able to deal with your issues, whatever they are," she had said and promptly left, like nothing had happened. None of the teachers or parents ever knew, but unfortunately for him the incident had escaped out onto the school grapevine and, combined with his earlier defeat months before in wrestling training, it had ruined his reputation and reduced him to a washed-up bully, whom nobody feared.

Still he only watched as the kid and what was probably that little monster's mom passed him. "God, I hate that brat. Why does she get all that special treatment? She doesn't seem that smart when you talk to her," he groused.

"Dude, Diego, my man, I know you don't like her, and sure I am not a fan either. But I have AP Math with her, and she is scary smart. She doesn't show off, in fact it's almost like she doesn't know it, but when there is a bit of calculus we have to do or something, the solution like comes to her," Andy explained.

"Errgh, I can't take more of this. Let's just get to class," he said and walked the other way.

-------------------------------

"See you, Buffy," the mother of his special student said and gave him a polite nod before leaving. It was uncommon for high school teachers to see a student's parents drop off their kid, but given Buffy's situation it wasn't so weird. Buffy was a gifted student and on a fast track program that would graduate her to college within a year. To him, she was a bright and often funny girl, who seemed equally socially adept as she was capable of doing the reading for his class. He knew from her transcripts, her mother, and her behavior that Buffy wasn't big on History of any kind, but thanks to some dedicated coaching from him and a few others they had at least gotten the entire 'forget the errors of the past, doomed to repeat them' bit into her head. That seemed to have done the trick, and now she did her reading and often offered her opinion on the subjects at hand, seemingly having a keen eye for the fact that often the reasons for people's behavior throughout history -- illogical or not -- was an effect of their level of education and knowledge, rather than an indication that people today were any better than those who'd gone before.

Given the level of thinking of his advanced placement students that wasn't so weird, but compared to his regular history classes, even with the seniors, it was like comparing night and day. Universities should consider themselves lucky to be able to teach someone like Buffy or his other students -- most of whom had taken their seat while he had been thinking about them.

"So guys, today we're dealing a bit more with the situation of South America during the Cold War. Let's start with the outside influences in the region and look at what they were trying to gain politically, ideologically and, of course, the real reason, economically..." he started explaining.

-------------------------------

Anna realized she actually knew very little about the kid who seemed to be in her every class, as well as several other classes that she hadn't been able to get into. "Buffy Anne Summers Carter," she knew that the blond girl was named. She knew that Buffy was smart, kind, unafraid of life and somehow fierce. A tiny but growing kid, who was wise, yet childish when she was allowed to be. Buffy was also both her worst competitor and her protector. Buffy didn't seem to care, but they were tied for grades in almost every class they shared.

The girl also didn't seem to fear letting people know when she -- a tiny slip of a girl, eleven going on twelve -- disapproved of their actions, even when it was bullies picking on someone more their own size. She knew Buffy had prevented several people from doing stuff to her, from performing all the classics of high school harassment, and she suspected Buffy was the reason Alex Wilder, the guy who had pretended to like her then dumped her publicly, had later that day apologized to her like his life depended on it.

She and the other kids in the AP classes were living a life of relative safety, and it had all begun when the tiny girl had appeared, looking a bit lost and afraid in their class. She remembered that day really well.

The girl had come in and stood looking pale and tiny, when Samuels their History teacher had introduced her. "This is Buffy Summers, she'll be joining our class this year. Buffy is quite young and new to this school, so I'd like you all to make an effort to help her feel welcome and survive the high school experience," he had said.

She remembered the kid looking around and smiling -- not in the usual shy friendly manner, but somehow... impossibly... more motherly in her manner. She had a nurturing... or rather protective way about her even back then. Buffy had somehow become more self-assured from one moment to the next as she walked over and sat next to her.

She knew that one day months ago, long after she had gotten on a first-name basis with Buffy, the girl had taken Diego Alvarado, the bully that seemed to have followed her since Junior High School like a curse, and dunked him in the toilet. She had no idea how, but the rumors at the school were adamant on that point, as were the rumors that Buffy was less normal than she appeared. Those rumors were totally wild, all about Buffy being able to lift a teenager and outdo the entire athletics team in every discipline. She did know that the girl had a lot of PE on her schedule and in fact, until Buffy was picked up by her mom or sometimes that brunette woman at five, the girl was constantly occupied.

There was one girl at school who seemed to know Buffy better than anyone, aside from her PE teacher: Cassandra Frasier. However, Cassie clammed up whenever anyone asked about the girl and would only say that Buffy's mom was a very busy Air Force officer and her mom's best friend. Because of that Buffy spent a lot of time at Cassie's house. The few girls Anna had known who also knew Cassie just said that Buffy had a room at Cassie's house. That the girl was there a lot and that she was seriously cool for a kid her age. Cassie seemed to like the girl, but more than that Buffy and Cassie didn't seem to tell anyone.

There was some sort of invisible barrier of secrecy about Buffy, too. Anna had been an office aide all year, and Buffy's transcripts were kept under lock and key, while her schedule seemed completely decided by outside consultants rather than the teachers at the high school. She had even found out that Buffy had her very own private PE teacher, an Air Force Captain and teacher from the Air Force Academy, whom a Google search had only told her was a former helicopter pilot in the Gulf War. She knew she was obsessing again, and probably creating mystery where there was none, but when she looked up from their pop-quiz and saw the blond-haired girl stare out the window, looking at the weather outside with her test probably already done at her side, she just knew she had to try to go to the source.

-------------------------------

A few hours later Anna saw her chance just as she had hoped. Apparently, there was a small gap in Buffy's schedule every Tuesday at this time. She looked up at the girl who seemed, as always, lost in thought, looking out over the athletics stadium, while waiting for her PE teacher to arrive. She noticed that Buffy hadn't changed her clothes, which meant that she was going off campus as she often did in the afternoons. Anna knew that it was a bit weird to blow off a class in order to ask a little kid about stuff and try to dig up stuff, but she was a curious person and, to her, there was no current greater mystery than Buffy.

"Excuse me, Buffy," she said and sat next to the girl, hoping to avoid looming over the girl and starting off the conversation on the wrong foot.

"Okay... Hi, Anna, what's up?" Buffy asked, immediately looking like she was worried about her.

"Nothing, I'm fine. I just wanted to ask if you... where you're going today?" she asked.

"Oh, I am going off to my Aikido class -- that is, when my teacher gets here to pick me up..." Buffy explained.

"Aikido, is that some martial art?" she asked, knowing the answer, but hoping that she could get Buffy to really talk to her and then maybe get to know her better.

"Yeah... but why do you ask? You're, like, off-the-chart smart, you should know... Well, it's okay if you don't, though," Buffy said.

She had to stop herself from wincing. She knew very well what Aikido was and had hoped that Buffy would be like everyone else and not notice her fishing for knowledge. Unfortunately, unlike the rest of her friends, all from AP of course, Buffy wasn't socially inept and seemed to actually be perceptive about people and their emotions. That was a bit of a problem, because that was even more stuff the girl would be ahead of her on. "I didn't know. So you take Aikido. Aren't you a bit young to be taking Martial Arts?" she asked.

"God, no; anyone should at least know self-defence and, honestly, you could start studying Martial Arts at like six, as long as your training is set up for it," Buffy explained.

"I didn't know. I don't know anything about fighting and stuff like that," she replied.

"Oh, that's okay, most people thankfully don't have to. Me, I like to know stuff about fighting and I am really good at it, too. Why don't you and I talk more about it some other day, though? Tawny... my teacher... is here," Buffy said and got up to greet the older woman who had just walked up to them without her noticing.

The woman seemed to study her intensely. She fought to not look down and away. But she knew when she wasn't wanted and still got up to leave. She thought about what she had just learned as she headed away.

"Anna," Buffy called out to her, as she was barely a few yards away from her.

"Yeah," she replied and turned to look back at the girl, who was zipping her jacket and getting ready to leave.

"Would you like to swing by my house next week? We could study for the Chemistry test next Friday," Buffy offered.

She had not expected the young genius to offer her something like that. In fact, Anna always seemed to have to ask her friends for study dates and stuff like that. "I'd love to," she replied.

"Cool, we'll plan it out when I am back in a few days," Buffy replied, reminding her that the girl often disappeared for a few days, then returned like nothing had changed, and the teachers never seemed to remark on it, either. It also restarted all her thinking about the mystery that everyone around her seemed to ignore.

-------------------------------

"What was all that about?" Tawny asked her as she slipped her notebook into her bag.

"That was Anna. She is just being awkward and curious. I think she is trying to understand me. I puzzle her, I think. But I don't mind, she's smart and sweet," she replied.

"Buffy, she's a geek... She would be the poster girl for geekdom, if she had braces or frizzy hair," Tawny replied.

"You just fear that which is smarter than you," she said with a smile.

"Punk," her teacher replied.

"Yeah, yeah, now you're like that. So are we going to Aikido, or what?" she asked.

"Yup," Tawny said, and they left.

-------------------------------

The next day started intensely. Her mom seemed to practically be buzzing with energy as she woke her and told her to be ready soon. Buffy didn't mind getting up early, especially if it was for a trip through the Stargate. She hoped she'd see her granddad and Lieutenant Elliot again, because last she'd heard they had both been going to that Alpha site place. She had no idea what it was, but it sounded a lot like an SGC kind of place.

She washed her hair and decided while it dried that she'd soon try a shorter hair style. She loved her long hair, but a girl needed to try different things while she was young, and besides, she was more than a bit tired of running around for nearly a half hour with wet hair every day -- unless she blow-dried it, and that was really hard on the hair over time. Deciding practicality had to win over style that day, she just slipped her hair into a ponytail, while making sure a few strands dropped to the left of her face. She smiled to check her teeth, because while she had both brushed and flossed it was good to know you were fully in the clear from any leftovers of breakfast. "Buffy, we need to go," her mom yelled.

She slipped out of the bathroom and grabbed a jacket in the hall, walking up to her mom as she put it on. "Where's the fire?" she asked.

"No fire, it's just that I am leaving with the others in two hours and I wanted you to be able to go along... Although, if you need more time to dry your hair I can wait," her mom explained.

"No, I'm good," she said.

Her mom gave her an apologetic look and hefted a large green bag. She looked down at it in bewilderment and noticed that Mr. Gordo was sticking out of a zipper. "Mom, why are we hauling so much along?" she asked.

Her mom sighed, but said nothing. It seemed it had more to do with the stuff she couldn't tell her about. "Mom," she insisted. She had a limit on how much secrecy she could tolerate when it dealt with her. Besides, if her mom acted weird, everyone had told her to be careful.

"I can't tell you details, but your stay at the Alpha site might be longer than a few days, or it might be over in a flash. Look, Buffy, I will explain it all once we're at the Alpha site. I promise," her mom said.

"Alright, but I am warning you. This is very weird, and you've all told me to be careful when it gets weird," she said.

"True, but it'll make sense soon, I promise," her mom said as they left the driveway and headed for the SGC.

-------------------------------

Buffy found the SGC in a state of weird much like her mom. Everyone seemed insanely busy, and she was sure she saw more civilians there in one room they passed than she had thought were usually on the entire base. They quickly changed, and she was soon back in her adventure suit, as she had taken to thinking of it. She liked the gift from Jack a lot, and so she had insisted on going through the gate in her mini-BDUs, as everyone else had dubbed them.

Jack was looking very serious when she slipped into the gate room. The gate was dialing while a group of technicians and soldiers were moving a huge silver tube on wheels up onto the ramp to the gate. Daniel and Teal'c were standing in the background, looking on the entire circus with a bit of detachment. She wandered over to them, because Jack looked really busy and focused. "Hey, you two, how are things here?" she asked.

"Busy, Buffy," Teal'c said. He had kept calling her Buffy, especially after the quiet and dignified ceremony he and she had held just after he had come back from Revanna. Her mom had been too busy to attend, and it hadn't been a big production, either. Teal'c had said something in the Jaffa language and given her a cup to drink after putting a drop of his blood in there. It had burned in her mouth and on the way down. Then he had asked her if she accepted him as a protector and she had said yes. It had all seemed very stoic and simple, but she guessed that fit Teal'c's character very well. He wasn't one for big shows.

"I see. So, Daniel, has mom asked you to tutor me in French yet?" she asked.

"No, she hasn't, but she's been really busy. I'd love to, of course," he answered.

"You're so cool," she said and hugged him. She just knew that if she had been like ten or fifteen years older, she'd totally put the moves on Daniel. She shook her head. That thought had brought up all sorts of really freaky pictures in her mind. That had all featured some very smitten-looking fellows. She wondered what it had meant, but the feeling it had evoked was new to her.

"So, you're coming with us today?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, mom insisted. I didn't even have time to dry my hair," she explained, then asked, "What's really going on here?"

Teal'c and Daniel looked at each other. Then Teal'c said, "Your world is in danger from a rock that might hit it and destroy all life on it. You're going to safety so that your mother does not have to fear your death, should we fail to stop it. Have no fear, Buffy, we will not fail. We have not, and we will not."

Her mind reeled for a moment. It was easy to forget that the Earth was just a place in the universe and could be destroyed. Thankfully, her mom and other geniuses like her were there to help watch out for it and protect it. Buffy also understood why they wanted her off Earth. The Alpha site was probably some sort of secret hideout or base, where the SGC stashed all their off-world operations and now her. Or…she thought back on those civilians, and realized this was all apart of a bigger plan. They were making sure that something of Earth would survive, if her mom and the others failed.

"Will you guys be in danger?" she asked the two guys who seemed willing to actually give her answers.

"Less than everyone on Earth. Should we fail, our orders are to go to the Alpha site, where O'Neill will then assume command," Teal'c explained.

"He's a good choice," she agreed. Behind her the gate opened. She turned and they all followed the silver device through the gate.

-------------------------------

She ended up spending nearly a week at the dreary base. It was all tents, metallic sheds and a bit of stuff. It was also filled with Jaffa and Tok'ra glaring at each other. As much as she had wanted to watch the Jaffa train, neither the Jaffa nor the Tok'ra had been big fans of that. Her granddad had hung around all the time and the Jaffa didn't seem to like him much, while the Tok'ra seemed unable to do anything without at least talking to him, or rather Selmak. The Tok'ra were also gushing with praise for her, which was rather flattering, if a bit much.

The only fun thing had been the nature around the base. The trees looked normal enough, but the flowers were really pretty and the animals seemed to be friendly, small mammals -- at least the ones she saw by day. The ones she heard before going to sleep at night were definitely predators, but she never got to see them.

Her mom left almost five hours after they'd arrived there, flying off in some transport ship that Selmak taught her was called a Tel'tak. That was another thing. Selmak suddenly seemed to constantly be lecturing her, and she heard him suggest to several other Tok'ra that he wanted to teach her their language so that she'd understand them even better. She didn't mind that much, because it was the same language the Jaffa used, and she was finding the stoic warrior people more and more interesting.

People had kept coming through the gate all week, and the tent camp grew even larger. They also brought through a shit-load of stuff, and there didn't seem to be too much of a break between the gate closing and opening again, even during the night. Then after a week, all the adults -- including Jacob, who was more or less the one taking care of her -- seemed really tense, before the gate opened again and Jack stepped through, telling everyone the danger was over and they could go back home.

She was actually on the first team back to Earth and was able to greet her mom as she returned from Patterson, where they had parked the Tel'tak. She even made it to her study date with Anna, who was none the wiser about a lot of stuff, when she really thought about it. Buffy had spent every hour since their study date thinking about it. The world had no idea who had saved them, and how many times the SGC had saved their planet in the past. She wondered if they'd thank them for it in the end. She knew she would always be thankful. It felt good being home.

-------------------------------

Months passed since her visit to the Alpha site. She passed her exams, even in French, which Daniel had been able to tutor her in until then. The Goa'uld that had screwed with the Tok'ra and sent the giant naquadah stone to Earth had not been stopped yet, but at least his gift of a naquadah asteroid had been really popular, and Earth's tel'tak was, according to her mom, freighting down several tons of ore a week form the asteroid now safely in far orbit around Earth.

She hadn't seen her granddad since her time at the Alpha site, either, but then again, the Tok'ra were busy finding a way to deal with Anubis, their new enemy, and his highly advanced technology. Still, life went on, even if her summer seemed to consist only of nature hikes, visits to the pool with Cassie, or letting Anna drag her off to cultural stuff that she insisted Buffy needed more of.

She had just spent the afternoon out with Anna at a renaissance fair, in costume and everything. She swore she'd never go to another one of those anytime soon, though. Everyone had kept treating her like some tiny, breakable piece of glass, especially Anna's otherwise cool parents. It seemed that her being smart and ahead of her class made her unable to do any of the cool stuff at the fair. She would make sure to tell her mom that she really wanted a sword or something as a present this Christmas… or even better, a punching bag of her very own, that would be great. It wouldn't take up too much space in the basement compared to her mom's experiments and tools.

She walked inside, finding the front door unlocked, which proved that her mom had actually made it home in good time from that new civilization she and Daniel had been visiting. "Mom," she called out.

"In the living room," her mom said. Something about her tone of voice was off, though.

She walked into the living room after dropping her bag below the coat rack and hanging away her jacket. "Mom?" she asked in confusion, when she noticed that her mom looked very distraught.

"Buffy," her mom said, and opened her arms, signaling her need for a hug. Buffy quickly scooted over and sat carefully in her mom's arms.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Daniel saved a lot of people... Oh, god, Buffy, how do I say this so that it makes sense, when I don't want it to? Buffy, Daniel is dying. He's got radiation poisoning. We've tried everything, but we can't do anything." Her mom started crying while desperately clinging to her. Buffy thought about the always thoughtful, sweet guy who had been a gentle guide for them all throughout her mom's time at the SGC and her time on this dimension's Earth. He seemed like such a constant. She couldn't help crying as well.

They sat there for a while. They stopped crying soon, though. Not because they weren't sad, but because they could do nothing else. After a while she asked, "Can I see him?"

"Are you sure you want to do that?" her mom asked, a bit surprised.

"I have to. I want to say goodbye, while I can," she admitted. It was for her own benefit, but she felt she needed to go pay her respects when there was still someone to be respectful to – locally, anyway.

"Go get your coat, I'll call ahead and tell everyone we're coming," her mom said and loosened her hug, letting her slip away. Buffy went into the hallway and realized she no longer cared what she had done during the day or that she found parts of her summer vacation boring.

-------------------------------

The mood in the infirmary where Daniel lay was somber, to say the least. In fact, after going through the outer security and passing the NORAD command the mood of the entire base had seemed off. Somehow and for some reason unknown to her, everyone at the SGC seemed quite focused on SG-1's wellbeing – in this case, the wellbeing of Daniel.

Buffy walked into the room with her visitor's badge dangling from a pocket and noticed all the dire faces on the nurses swarming around in the room. The only thing she saw that seemed out of the ordinary was that Daniel's hands were bandaged. She heard her mom whisper to Teal'c, who stood outside the door looking down the corridor, lost in thought, probably. "Where is Jack?" her mom whispered.

"He was very upset with the allegations leveled against Daniel Jackson, so he has gone back to the planet to complain," she heard Teal'c tell her mom.

"Why have you brought Buffy?" he continued, sounding perplexed.

"She wanted to pay her respects. Daniel has been very important to her," her mom told Teal'c.

She took a breath and walked up to Daniel, who was staring at the ceiling. For a moment, she felt at a loss. "Buffy," she heard, and looked up to find Daniel looking at her.

"Hey," she said, not really able to say much else at that moment.

"Why did you come?" he asked, looking at her with pity in his eyes. That was just like Daniel, to think about others first.

"To see you, doofus," she said, almost smiling, then felt sad knowing that it would be the last time she could kid around with Daniel... Somehow she felt that while she had seen death before, this was the first time she actually got to be with someone actively dying and whom she cared about.

"I didn't mean that... Daniel, I am really sorry," she said.

"Sorry about what? It was a stupid question," he said.

"Not about that. I'm sorry you'll..." she couldn't say it at first. "Die," she finally choked out.

"I am going to miss you so much," she added, but found the words hollow. There was no way she could express her love for Daniel in words. So, she did as she tried to do with her mom every day, she tried to show it.

"Buffy, I..." Daniel started to say but not before she landed in his arms and hugged him. She planted a chaste kiss on his cheek before sliding back to stand next to him.

"I... Thank you," he said, but a bitterness she had never before seen stayed in his eyes.

She looked at him funny but couldn't understand what Daniel had to be bitter about in his life. He had done great things. He had opened the Stargate, he had allowed Earth's defenders to understand countless cultures and open relations with all of them. He had done and helped do hundreds of great and small deeds. He had done good or tried to do good in all of them. He had nothing to be bitter about. Because if anyone would, he would be going to Heaven.

"Daniel, you did good. You've always done good. There is nothing to fear from death if you did good. Death can be a gift," she whispered and felt again like she was in contact with that vastness that was her older self.

Daniel stared at her, then smiled, if still a bit tightly. "You sound so sure," he said.

"I am... I just am," she said, not really sure herself why she was. She realized that she had been crying for a while.

"Buffy, I am glad I got to know you before..." Daniel said.

"Me too... I think I'd never really have learned French if you hadn't been there," she said and sniffled.

"I bet... But, Buffy, don't be sad. I... I guess I have seen and done more than most and defied death for too long. Maybe a rest would do me good," he said, trying to console her.

"Daniel, I know. I understand... Daniel, don't be afraid for us: we will go on, but we will miss you deeply," she said.

He looked at her for a while, then said, "I know. I..."

"Are you guys okay?" her mom stepped up and asked.

"I guess," she said, and Daniel nodded.

"We should let Daniel rest for a while," her mom suggested, clearly not really able to take seeing her friend lying there slowly dying from radiation poisoning. Buffy's concern immediately shifted a bit. She loved Daniel as a friend, but seeing her mom in pain was like a switch was thrown in her mind. A will unknown to her until that moment welled up in her and all her qualms and personal feelings seemed to fade. Her mother needed her, all her feelings were secondary. She could deal with Daniel's death on her own.

"Sure, mom, why don't we go to your lab?" she said. She nodded to Teal'c in passing and sensed he was also having great trouble with seeing his friend dying. It was getting clear. Daniel was a core part of the impromptu family that was SG-1, and no one had really prepared themselves to lose a member of that family.

As they walked through the halls and corridors of the SGC she decided to speak up, hoping it wasn't like poking a raw wound, "Mom, I want to tell you something, and I think you won't like it much, but I want you to understand," she said.

Her mom pushed her blond tresses back in a move she'd have told a guy would make him bald too soon, before her mom replied, "It's about Daniel, right?"

"Mom, it's good to be sad now, but don't let it get in the way of you saying goodbye. I never got to say goodbye to my first mom. I think I still regret that. Daniel is going to die. You have to talk to him and tell him what you feel. It makes life after easier... And life goes on. It's hard, but you have to go on, because otherwise what use was his and all the other lives before his?" she explained.

They turned the corner into her mom's lab. Her mom kept walking until she reached a chair and dropped into it, burrowing her face in her hands. "I don't know if I can... You know, we're told not to do that. Keep a professional distance. They don't realize it can't work here. We have a set team. Everyone on the SG teams knows this. Your team is more than just friends and workmates. We're, each and everyone of us, tiny families forged together by adversity. I've never told him…or Jack…or Teal'c…how I really feel. I hoped they knew. But what if they don't understand? What if Daniel doesn't? I... I am just not that good at friends and family. Even you... I sometimes think I should just have quit the SGC and been there for you..." her mom said, becoming more and more distraught.

She walked over and lifted her mom's arms off the table and onto her shoulders. She wished she were bigger, so instead of hugging her mom she lifted her mom's chin with a finger and captured her mom's eyes with hers, putting all her effort into making sure she had her mom's attention. She hoped whatever source of wisdom she had from her past didn't fail her as she said, "Mom, I have never, ever doubted that you loved me from the second you decided way back sometime at Winterhome that you wanted me. I've told myself since that you would've have adopted me, DNA or no DNA. I know that all of you -- Jack, Teal'c, even Daniel -- should have had it out long ago. Talked like more than workmates. You still can. Life goes on, and all you can do is to move beyond your mistakes. Live with them instead of trying to hide behind them. I feel it every time you guys are near each other: you're more than just friends. You just said so, yourself. So go and admit it to them... Start with Daniel."

Her mom looked at her than with teary eyes, then took her into that hug she hadn't herself started earlier. "Buffy, never, ever leave me. I wouldn't know what I would do without you. I love you more than life itself... There, I started... You're right, we have too many feelings that we haven't expressed on our team. I guess I was just afraid, as I have been my entire career, to be considered the overly emotional female. But I guess it's time to stop." Her mom wiped away a few of her own tears.

"Uhh, I wish the rules were different, sometimes," her mom said without explaining what she meant. But Buffy guessed her mom was hinting at the unresolved emotions between her and Jack. And the fact that a relationship would be against the rules.

Her mom got up, then stopped and looked at her. "Buffy, I want to stay for now... Would you mind staying here? Either in the lab, the observation room to Daniel's room, or the cafeteria, which you should visit anyhow. Don't think I haven't noticed you've been dropping a few pounds again," her mom said.

"Mom, I don't do it on purpose... What would you do if I ran marathons? Then my weight would swing a lot more," she replied glad her mom's mood lightened a bit, even though it was probably not really for real.

"I'd pity your competitors and worry that you'd still somehow get into trouble. Oh and you'd still be on a medically regulated diet, so go... and eat," her mom said.

----------------------------

Buffy wandered into the observation room overlooking Daniel's final rest, eating her apple. She saw that the room was empty except for her mom, who was talking to a now completely bandaged Daniel. She didn't want to intrude and stayed out in the corridor. Suddenly there was a feeling, a feeling like there was a presence just in front of her. It felt almost exactly like with Orlin. Except older and maybe wiser. "Who are you?" she asked, avoiding her instinct to grab the air where she sensed the presence.

There was a flash of white light and she found herself in an image of the corridor outside the gate room. She could hear her mom and Daniel speaking on the other side. In front of her stood a white-clad, kindly woman. "I am Oma Desala," the woman said.

"I thought I've had it bad," she said before she realized she was being rude.

"Buffy Summers, do you know why the Ascended cannot see what is in your mind?" the woman asked.

"No, I have no clue. I've never really had to deal with this mental stuff too much before. Don't you guys know?" she asked.

"We are not gods, just travelers on the path to enlightenment. A path you too are following, in a way we have not seen before. Your mind, your soul seems to be guiding itself towards something greater," the woman said, then seemed to focus on her for a moment.

There was a flash and they stood for a moment again on that dune she had seen before in her mind. "You are not welcome here," a girl with golden hair and a defiant expression said to Oma, who was looking around in confusion.

The girl walked up to Oma. "Leave now... before it kills you. It will do the same to any other invaders," she said and pointed towards a snarling primitive woman with dark eyes. Oma disappeared, looking shocked.

"Who're you and where are we?" Buffy asked.

"Too early. Sorry, kid, but I promise we'll have a long talk one day. If you'll like it or not, that remains to be seen. You're doing great, though. I envy you a little, but I guess that will also be a moot point later on," the girl said, then put a hand over Buffy's eyes. She blinked and was back in the corridor without the sense of a presence.

----------------------------

She watched as the hours passed and Daniel got worse. Her mom was replaced by Teal'c, then an off-worlder came with some sort of box and talked to Jack and the General. Jack seemed to be happy he had come. The newcomer came into the observation deck with her. "Excuse me," he said as he noticed her.

She had tried to be as silent and unobtrusive as possible all day and she wasn't sure she was up to talking much with Daniel growing weaker all the time. "Hi, little one, I'm Jonas Quinn," he said and smiled, until some thought he had froze the smile on his face.

"Are you Dr. Jackson's child?" he asked before she could introduce herself.

"No, I'm Buffy Summers Carter," she said. She had considered dropping the Summers a few times but had finally decided a few weeks ago that she couldn't ignore her past and her Summers name was important to her.

"Major Carter's daughter. I am pleased to meet you... Although I am sure the circumstances…," he rambled a bit, apparently trying to backtrack and gloss over the fact that, Daniel's situation aside, he was actually glad to be at the SGC.

"It's okay. I don't think you meant anything bad. Why are you here? I thought I heard someone say you guys were angry with us," she said.

"Ah, yes, well, my government was less than truthful about what really happened during the incident with Daniel Jackson. They will not admit, even to themselves, that he saved our capitol from utter devastation. I came here personally to repay his sacrifice just a little by bringing you a large amount of a rare mineral that your mother thinks could be very important," he explained, then frowned.

"I usually don't get along well with children. You are a good listener," Jonas said.

"Thanks. Well, honestly, right now I think it's also because I don't really feel like talking," she said.

An airman came and got Jonas at that moment. "The General would like to speak with you. Oh... hi, Buffy, my condolences... Are you okay here?" the airman asked.

Apparently a lot of the SGC knew her by now. She finally recognized him as the airman she had borrowed a keycard from, back when Cassie was sick. "I am fine," she said, and saw Jack, who had been Daniel's latest bedside companion, get up and leave. Janet replaced him. It showed that her second guardian was as upset as everyone else about not being able to help Daniel. She promised herself that she would try and alleviate Janet's sorrow later. Cassie would probably like to help, too. Even though Cassie was in the awkward teenage stage that she herself didn't look forward to, the adopted girl still loved Buffy's mom a lot and would want to take care of her own adopted mom.

A few minutes later there was an alert as someone arrived through the Stargate. Shortly after that, Teal'c, her mom, Jack, General Hammond and her granddad joined Janet in the treatment room. They were going to do something. She debated in her mind going down there, finally deciding she'd rather be at Daniel's side, unless someone thought she was skulking about, afraid to face his death.

She ran down to the room as quick as she could, but a few troops returning from the Stargate room slowed her a bit. When she arrived, her granddad smiled at her, while Selmak said, "Greetings, Buffy. Now I will attempt to heal him, but I will not be able restore him to full health."

Her granddad focused on Daniel, and the healing device he was using – a thing her mom had only told her about – glowed an orange ray at Daniel's stomach. She wondered if Daniel would want to live if not with his full health. The minutes passed, and she noticed the presence of the being that called itself Oma increased, but it seemed to be focused on Daniel. She felt a bit of the presence brush against her again before focusing on Jack. More time passed, everyone still almost holding their breaths. "Jacob, stop please," Jack said out of the blue.

"What... Are you serious?" her granddad asked. Everyone else looked surprised. Janet and her mom looked a bit upset.

"It's what he wants. It's what he would want," Jack said.

She thought that Jack might have had a communication with either Daniel or Oma. She was unsure why, though. No one had really explained Orlin and now Oma fully to him.

"Someone else want to tell me what I should do?" her granddad asked. No one said anything. Everyone thought the same as she did, Daniel wouldn't want any sort of half-life.

"Just let him go," Jack said, sounding almost a bit defeated by it all.

Jacob seemed to slump a bit, and the healing device stopped its glow and hum. It took a few moments, then the EKG flatlined. She felt a sob well forward, when suddenly Daniel's body glowed and the feeling of presence increased a lot. There was a new presence, familiar, friendly and very clearly newborn. The glow increased. A strange, almost angelic looking being appeared over Daniel's bed.

For a moment her perception flickered, and she stood in what looked like the gateroom. Daniel was standing on the ramp talking to Jack. "Hey... Where are you going?" Jack asked.

Daniel looked confused but also excited as he said, "I don't know... Bye, Jack... Bye, Buffy." Jack looked over his shoulder at her, a bit perplexed, but she just shrugged, not really knowing how or why she was there either. Daniel walked up the ramp and went through the gate. She blinked and saw the medical observation room again. Daniel's bandages and bedcover sagged as his body disappeared. Overhead the white glowing thing faded away, as did both presences that Buffy had felt.

"Bye, Daniel," she said and just couldn't help smiling. Whatever had happened, Daniel hadn't really died. Death wasn't like that. Didn't feel that way. She knew. She just knew. Her mom walked over, clearly distraught, and lifted her up into her arms, needing her near again. Buffy hoped it wouldn't take too long until that need faded, with her help. She noticed Teal'c bowing his head in respect, then turning and walking past, followed by first the General, then her granddad, who gave her a thumbs-up, and finally Janet. Jack remained there, looking up at the ceiling before he too left. Her mom let her down. "Buffy, wait for me at the elevator, you should be home in bed by now," her mom said, while wiping away more tears.

"Mom, is it okay if I visit Janet before we go? We can still meet at the elevator," she said.

"Sure," her mom said.

----------------------------

She didn't have to look long for him. Sam had guessed Jack would go to Daniel's office. Outside of her lab it was the coziest of all their offices, and with the loss of Daniel, he -- like her -- would probably still go there to remember, at least once. She found him studying one of Daniel's pictures of Sha're. He cast a glance over his shoulder, seeing her, then looked back down at the picture. "He left us, you know," Jack said.

"What do you mean?" she replied, unsure what to really think about what had happened in the end at Daniel's deathbed.

"He didn't die, as such. He ascended. Apparently that woman from Kheb was still interested in him. He left us," Jack said and sounded a bit bitter.

"Ascension, is that the same as death?" she asked.

"I don't know... Neither did he... Buffy seemed to know something, too," he said.

"Buffy is... she understands death in a way I can't. She accepted Daniel's passing almost immediately. I think that's why," she said.

"You know, I sometimes think our getting her here was almost a rescue mission. Whatever she did back there, she had done enough, seen too much. No one should understand death like that," he said.

"Jack... I didn't come here to talk about Daniel... I came... about us," she said.

"Sam, we can't. I... The SGC... Look, I've thought about this. But either one of us is out of here -- and this place needs us too much -- or I'd have to replace Hammond, then get promoted out of here, and that wouldn't help much, either... But Sam," he turned towards her and looked her right in the eyes. They never touched.

"What you feel... I feel it too. If we could only find a way," he continued. Had she been more girly she'd have kissed him right there or gone more weak in the knees than he had already made her.

"About Buffy, you wouldn't mind?" she said.

"Never, I've always wanted a daughter," he replied.

"Damn, we really, really need to find a way," she said, about to move closer, almost ready to stop giving a damn about the regs.

"Let's stop this," Jack said and turned away. She nodded to herself. She still needed to get her daughter to bed, and it had been an emotional day.

"To be continued," she whispered and left, not hearing any response from Jack.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: 

"Buffy, school starts next week, right?" her mom asked just as Buffy got up from her latest series of push-ups. She had adopted a regular exercise schedule ever since her excess energy had started making it nearly impossible to sleep more than a few hours every day. All summer, since a week after Daniel's death, she ran a 5-mile circuit every morning and evening, on top of generally practicing her gymnastics, martial arts, or just doing basic aerobics for a few hours. Her mom hadn't commented on it – at first because she had been kept busy at work, and later because she had probably noticed that it let Buffy sleep a full night, if she was exhausted.

"Yes," Buffy replied, while wandering into the kitchen. She went into the fridge to grab a bottle of milk, as she was currently required by her diet to increase her intake of calories. Her mom was packing a couple of bags, using the fresh laundry.

"Are you going back down to Nevada?" she asked. Her mom was involved in some project down there that took a load of her time and had her travelling down there regularly. With Daniel gone and every replacement failing within one mission, SG-1 wasn't doing much. Jack had visited last week and commented about the general lack of quality in the candidates, while insisting on teaching her baseball, claiming it was an important thing for a kid to know. She privately thought he just wanted to see them, with her mom gone so much and them not gating off to some mission every few days.

"No, actually I thought you might like a little adventure, while I take a short trip to Nevada," her mom suggested.

"Huh, are you sending me off to some camp or something?" she asked.

"No. Well, not really. Teal'c has asked me not once, but at least five times now, to let him take you to visit his family. He wants you to meet his son, his wife and his teacher. It's a cultural thing... or at least so he says. I didn't want you to go at first -- gate travel and especially things dealing with the Jaffa can become dangerous fast -- but he swears he won't let you get in any danger," her mom explained.

She grabbed her mom's hands while jumping up and down, almost performing a happy dance. "I am going through the gate again. I am going through the gate again," she gloated, then stopped. "Mom, are you sure, you want me to go?" she asked.

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Jack, Jonas, and I will head down to Nevada and see my other baby in the meantime. Teal'c has promised he'll get you back to me before school starts and you'll get a nice experience... I want to warn you, though. The Jaffa live rough lives. There won't be any luxuries or parties. And they're more likely to let you watch some fight or teach you to be a good girl and stay at home with the cooking pots than show you a good time, but it's important to Teal'c, so I hope you're still going," her mom warned her.

"Ah, well, I'll just remember to bring my shampoo, brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, then... Oh, oh, and my perfume," she said as she thought the details through.

"Don't get over-excited on me; you might start foaming at the mouth. I could start thinking you don't like staying with me," her mom said with a wry smile.

"Hey," she protested, "I wasn't saying that. I didn't mean that. I was just bored... But hey, why do I -- a mere civilian -- rate a gate trip?"

"Well, it's because Teal'c was going anyway. He's allowed a few private trips, and if the gate moves one or a hundred, it costs the same on the electric bill. And since you're on the Alpha list, you're the only almost-12-year-old in the entire world cleared for gate travel," her mom explained.

"Yay, me," she said, but looked at the bag before running to her room and getting a few more essentials that her mom wouldn't have packed.

-------------------------

Buffy was glad, somehow, that she was being recognized at the SGC now. It felt almost familial, when guards, medical personnel, scientists and SG team members nodded to her as she passed. She wasn't wearing her SGC BDUs -- mostly because they weren't really in a good state after her visit to the Alpha site. She had put on her hiking gear, instead, keeping in mind her mom's warning that Chu'lak could get really cold.

There was a heavy footstep as she turned the corner towards the gate room and saw her mom talking to Jack and Teal'c. The sound had been made by Teal'c in his massive Jaffa armor, complete with staff weapon in hand and zat mounted in his forearm. He had moved to face her. "Buffy, I am glad you made it here on time. I hope your visit to my home will be a pleasant one," he said, while the dialing sequence started to run in the background.

Her mom reached down and took her into a hug, "Now, you promise me: no reckless adventuring. You stay safe. You do as Teal'c asks and remember: try to have some fun, if you can."

"Oh, I'm sure it will be fine," Jack said – at which both she and her mom could only look up and glare at Jack.

"You just jinxed me," she said.

"What?" he replied with a teasing smile.

"I am so going to be in trouble," she said. "Teal'c, let's go before Jack makes it worse."

"Honestly, sir," Sam said, shaking her head as the gate opened.

Buffy followed Teal'c up the ramp, hearing Jack yell, "Don't worry! What's the worst that could happen?" She winced and swore she'd slap that man silly one day... It was all in good fun, of course, but Jack should know better. Stuff always happened to her... Alright, she had to admit to herself – not to anyone else – that she liked it when things happened. It gave life zest. But still, something might go wrong. She'd be hurt, and her mom would be totally unhappy. She didn't want to make anyone unhappy, especially her mom.

It was secretly so cool to her that she was almost able to call stepping through the Stargate routine. She followed Teal'c, who after glancing at her had gone first. The usual experience of light and paths moving through the galaxy filled her view until she walked out the other side, now knowing how to compensate for the slight push the Stargate gave your body on exit. She thought it was a built-in feature, probably to get people entirely clear of the event horizon. It was nice that she had learned so much in school – and, if she was honest, from listening to her mom spouting science terms. That meant she knew what words like 'event horizon' meant.

Immediately after thinking that, she noticed her breath fogging in the air in front of her. Somehow, for some reason, cold made her smile, as if it were unfamiliar... which it certainly wasn't, given her last year and a half living in places which seemed to regularly turn icy cold. "Have you arrived alright, Buffy Anne Summers Carter?" Teal'c said.

"Whoa, why are we back to the formal stuff, Teal'c?" she asked, after wincing at the full length of her name.

"I apologize, Buffy; however, I will have to address you with full name, at least in the presence of my family, until I have declared to Master Bra'tac, the leader of this community, and Drey'auc my wife that you are under my protection," he explained and noticed something in the distance.

She turned and saw the dreary-looking Jaffa camp just within sight of the Stargate. Two Jaffa with silvery skull caps in addition to their armor and carrying snake symbol tattoos like Teal'c, except not in gold, advanced on them with lowered staffs. She instantly felt her body shift her position, and mentally she assessed if she could take out one before the other could shoot Teal'c -- although the big guy could probably handle them both on his own. "Greetings, Teal'c," one of them called and shifted his staff to an upright position. After a questioning look at his fellow Jaffa, the other guard did the same.

"Greetings. Is master Bra'tac here?" Teal'c asked.

"He is at the other end of our camp," the first Jaffa guard said, but something about his tone warned her that Teal'c might not be the most popular of persons, locally, which baffled her quite a bit.

"Thank you," Teal'c said and gave the guard a polite nod before proceeding towards the camp. She followed along, while trying to take in the cold and poor-looking camp. A few Jaffa women were walking between tents in heavy clothing to keep the cold out. Their eyes were proud and unbowed, so the lack of luxury didn't seem to have embittered them. She wondered how she'd handle a life totally without mall trips, clothes shopping, and school, but rather a life with action, trouble, and danger at every turn. Strangely, for once her mind and her past did not seem to offer a ready answer.

As they approached a set of tents, she noticed that one of the men there ducked his head into a tent and said something. Another armored man -- smaller than most others she had seen in the camp, complete with a scruffy gray-white beard and a staff -- exited quickly, looking surprised. Teal'c's head was turned the other way until the man approached, after casting a wondering glance at her.

"Tek ma te, Teal'c," the elderly man said just as Teal'c noticed him and smiled. They grasped each other's hands by the forearms.

"Tek ma te, Master Bra'tac," Teal'c responded. It was clear from his tone and expression that he greatly respected this elderly man, who was apparently some sort of master.

"It is a most fortunate thing that you choose this time to come for a visit, Teal'c. Drey'auc is gravely ill," the older man warned.

She frowned. This wasn't what she had hoped. Poor Teal'c... and this would ruin her visit off-world. Apparently, Jack's jinx had really hit them hard.

"What is wrong with her?" Teal'c asked immediately, sounding more emotional and urgent than she had seen or heard him be in a while.

"It is her symbiote. It matured, and we had to destroy it," Bra'tac explained.

"Has a new one been acquired?" Teal'c said and looked around questioningly.

"Drey'auc has refused to accept a new symbiote. She does not want another Jaffa to die so she can live. And the Goa'uld do not trust the priests with their young as they used to," Bra'tac explained.

"But she will die," Teal'c said, showing a flash of anguish very unlike anything she had seen the stoic man do before.

"Yes, she knows and accepts this. The rebellion we have started, Teal'c, is a moral one. The Free Jaffa will not accept needless death, especially amongst fellow Jaffa, and your wife believes in that deeply, as do most people in this camp... My friend, she has asked me not to bring you here. She does not want you to have to watch her die. Still, I am glad you came. In her heart she will be happy, as she passes on into the afterlife, that you are here to honor her memory," the older man said.

"Where is she?" Teal'c asked, and looked around at the meager living quarters. Master Bra'tac pointed at the tent he had just left, and Teal'c bowed his head in thanks and went in.

A boy a couple of years older than her came out as Teal'c was about to enter. He had dark skin and a certain set look on his face that reminded her of something. His face seemed to contort into anger and sadness as Teal'c stood towering over him. "How dare you come back here? She is dying because of you and your precious Tau'ri," the boy yelled with teary eyes. The pair seemed to stare at each other for a moment; then the boy ran off.

"Rya'c," Teal'c called out, but the boy headed away quickly, and it seemed Teal'c would rather visit his dying wife than run after the boy.

She watched Teal'c duck into the tent, leaving her alone with the elderly Jaffa Bra'tac and the other man who had stood silent guard all the while. The much older man seemed to remember she was standing there and turned to look at her. "Who are you, human?" he asked in a very demanding tone, as if she owed him an answer.

"I'm Buffy," she replied, now knowing better than to tell a Jaffa her full name.

"I have heard the name before, from Teal'c. You are the orphan that Major Carter cares for," the man said.

"She's my mom," she insisted.

"Yes, why are you here?" he asked.

"Because Teal'c invited me... He wanted me to meet you and his family... Was the guy who ran T's son?" she asked.

"T...? That was Rya'c, Teal'c's son," Bra'tac said, as if she was stupid or something.

"Oh, he's younger than I expected... Would you mind looking after this?" she said and dumped her bag next to the old guy, before turning and jogging in the direction of the forest where Teal'c's son had gone. She was Teal'c's friend, and she seemed to have some talent in talking to people who were grieving. She hoped the old guy would watch her baggage, but she didn't actually expect it to need much watching.

She jogged into the forest and found that a path led up a ridge hidden by the forest. It led towards what looked like some sort of watchtower. She spotted the boy sitting up there, high in the tower, looking out over the world beyond. She knew she could give the boy space, but she felt that might not be all that useful.

She walked up to the tower and climbed the steps, until the reached the top platform. She noticed that there was some sort of gun turret that seemed like a huge version of a staff weapon next to the boy. They had to be feeling pretty secure, because it didn't look like it would fire on its own.

The boy looked over at her and seemed to study her with surprise on his face. "You're a Tau'ri," he said.

"Really, what gives it away? I'd like to know. I mean, you seem to know and so does everyone else, even if we look pretty much the same," she asked.

Rya'c stared at her, momentarily shocked out of his grief. "It's the clothes... and well, the fact that you just go where no one has asked you to come," he explained.

"Oh... Really, is that why? I thought we looked, like, different to you, or something," she said.

"Well, no... Who are you?" he asked, naturally willing to talk about something besides his grief.

"I'm Buffy, I came with your dad... I am Samantha Carter's daughter," she explained.

"Samantha Carter... The blond soldier, who works with my father," he mused. "You're here to talk to me. To make me forgive him," Rya'c said, his anger rising again.

"I can't make you do anything you don't want to," she said, and sat down a few feet from him, looking out over the forests and mountains. The air was filled with an icy wind.

"Then why are you here?" he insisted after a while, probably having thought of little else for a few moments. It was what she expected he had done, anyway.

"Well, your dad made me go through a ritual... something called the Rite of Protection, or something like that, in my language. He wanted me to come here and meet you guys, because of that ritual. I was bored back home, so I decided to go," she explained.

The boy looked at her and said, "You're under my father's protection... Do you not have a father of your own?"

"Well... no... not really... I think I had a father figure once -- and SG-1 have been great, but more like uncles... So, I guess I don't have one," she admitted and wondered why she never thought about it more. It just didn't seem to worry her.

"So my father is to grant you his protection. Is he going to bring you into our family -- you, who are not even a Jaffa, you who do not have to suffer as we do? My mother lies dying, and he brings you, a Tau'ri, under his protection. How typical -- he will protect you, but he will not do anything for us," Rya'c rose and yelled at her.

She chose to remain seated; she didn't want to look in the boy's eyes and reveal the glare she felt like giving him. "You're so wrong," she said.

"What?" he yelled.

"I don't need a father, and what Teal'c is doing is just to protect me -- should bad things happen -- not adopt me," she explained.

"You have no idea... You went through the rite, but you have no idea... The Protection you're under is a protection of blood. It is the first step towards becoming a member of my family, of becoming my sister. He has made me obligated to you, as well... Why can't he just be here to make these decisions? ... Why isn't he here?" Rya'c turned away as he rambled.

She decided not to answer the boy back, right away. She had to consider her own situation first. No one, not even Teal'c, had said anything about the bond between them being a step towards an adoption. Of course, that in her head meant that Teal'c wasn't planning on anything, but it still threw up questions, like what else he hadn't told her. She then thought that maybe even her mom didn't know.

"Rya'c, your dad didn't know how bad things were here. He'd never have allowed it," she said and hoped it was true.

"How could he not have known? We live in squalor, while he lives in luxury at the SGC. We have to live off the land, fighting his precious revolution, while he seems to do nothing. Why didn't he take us there, why do we have to live here? ... Why does she have to die?" Rya'c said.

"I don't know. Have you ever asked your dad -- or anyone else of them, for that matter?" she replied.

He remained silent for a while then, before answering, "No... Maybe I should."

"It would be the sensible thing," she agreed.

"You're not dumb," Rya'c said after a while. She let her lips curve into a smile, but she decided that, not knowing Rya'c too well as yet, she had better stop prying.

Rya'c turned and looked at her. "We will go down to see my mother now. Follow me," he ordered.

"Excuse me," she said.

"I told you to come along. Now, come!" Rya'c said, after a few bewildered moments.

"Did you just order me?" she asked, a bit confused, while getting up.

"Of course, you are but a child and a female. You should not be left here alone," Rya'c told her, as though it was the most natural thing ever.

"Listen, you don't know me, so I will let this one pass. But don't you dare talk about me like I am beneath you, or I will have your guts for garters." She glared at Rya'c.

"I didn't mean to offend you... However, I am right, we need to return to camp. You are under my father's protection; therefore, I cannot leave you alone out here. So would you please return to the camp with me?" he said.

She still was unsure about his tone, but she decided that she'd freeze if she stayed up there much longer, anyway, so she might as well go with him. They walked down the path together, but she felt that she hadn't really gotten through to the young Jaffa yet. She wanted to, but it just hadn't felt right to let him in, and he certainly had acted in a way she couldn't really put her head around, yet.

They headed back to the camp, and she found that the old Jaffa had left her bag in front of Teal'c's family's tent. She didn't mind much. Rya'c seemed to reconsider speaking with anyone on their way, though, because after he had brought her back to the tent, he wandered off to talk to some other boys, who were apparently waiting for him.

Buffy considered if she should pull aside the tent flap herself and go in, or wait until Teal'c was done. "Buffy Summers Carter, please enter," Teal'c called out. She had no idea how he had known she was there, but considering the freezing cold outside she didn't think about it long. She ducked inside.

Teal'c was sitting next to a dark-skinned, beautiful woman. He had a tender look in his eyes as she lay there on a bed, wrapped in several blankets. The tent itself was warm, but not what Buffy would have recommended for anyone sick. "Come closer," Teal'c asked.

The woman propped herself up in bed and looked her up and down. "She is very much a Tau'ri, my husband," Drey'auc said, but her eyes weren't disapproving – only thoughtful.

"Yes, and she should be proud of that. Buffy Anne Summers Carter is someone I believe will become instrumental in the future of her people, and therefore also of the Jaffa. She will be a great warrior, one day, and I felt that to allow her the chance of fulfilling her potential she needed to be under my protection. Do you approve, my wife?" Teal'c asked very formally.

The woman's eyes seemed to turn very caring for a moment, before she asked, "Teal'c, how can this child be meant to be a warrior?"

"I do not know how or why. I do know that she is. I have seen her skill in battle. She will be great," he replied, making Buffy feel very self-conscious.

"Then, husband, I approve. I hope she will be proud of the gift you have given her and help both our people and hers," Drey'auc said, then coughed and laid her head back down.

Buffy looked up at Teal'c. "You need to get her back to Janet at the SGC. They must be able to do something."

"I am afraid not. The only thing that could save Drey'auc now is a symbiote stolen from another Jaffa, and my wife will not accept such a thing," Teal'c explained stoically, although his face told her that he'd rather she did accept it.

"Be calm, husband; I will await you in the afterlife. Your concern must be with the living. Rya'c, he... he doubts himself ever since Apophis took control of him. And he believes you doubt him, too. You must..." Drey'auc was wracked by yet another cough.

Bra'tac, who had stayed in the distant shadows of the large tent, hurried up and examined Drey'auc. "Girl, fetch Rya'c -- his mother is in her final moments. Quickly," he commanded.

She knew she should have protested, but there wasn't time. So she just grimaced at his words and ran out to find Rya'c again. He was still talking with his friends, but he kept looking in the direction of the tent. She ran as fast as she could over to him.

"Rya'c, your mother, I think she's dying. Bra'tac and your father want you there, now," she explained.

"I don't want to see my mother die," he countered.

"Like hell," she said, and considered her options. If she were taller, she would just pick him up and flip him over her shoulder to carry, but she wasn't really big enough yet. "Come with me now. Your mom needs you. How can you be so egotistical? Do you want her to die without you when she wants you there? Do you want to ignore her dying wish?" she lied, knowing very well that it had been Master Bra'tac who had asked for Rya'c.

He stared at her for a while, then started to run for the tent. She followed him quietly but quickly. She stopped outside the tent, though, deciding that it was too private a moment to intrude on. A few moments later Bra'tac stepped out of the tent. "Little one," he said, "we should move away from here."

"Yeah," she agreed, wondering what the man wanted.

They walked along for a while. "I am surprised Teal'c would take a girl such as you into his care. Why do you believe he did this?"

"Because I get in trouble, and he wanted to ensure my mom understood that he'd do everything in his power to rescue me," she explained.

"You are wrong, child. Maybe your mother was to believe that, but you should know it is something different. Teal'c believes you somehow mean a better future for our people. He thinks that you might be the warrior that will bring our struggle to finality. I have no idea as to why," Bra'tac said, but didn't say what he really thought of that idea. His tone, however, was filled with disbelief.

"So, what's next? The test where I kick the crap out of whomever you want me to face, and then you'll believe me?... Like I even want you to," she said, before the strange feeling of irritation that seemed to come from outside herself at the idea of such a 'test' faded.

The man studied her for a short while, then said, "I did not plan on having anyone attack you." She wasn't sure she believed him, but let the discussion fall away, feeling a bit bad at having jumped to conclusions like that.

"I'm sorry, I don't know why I said that," she apologized. It had happened a few times before, during these last several months. She would get deeper flashes of what she feared was her old personality. If that was true, then her old personality was a bit more abrasive than she had expected.

"I wanted to offer you some food," he said and indicated a cooking fire.

"Now, this is more like it," she said.

-------------------------

Meanwhile, back on Earth the Stargate opened but for some reason stayed open. In space, several starships were hurrying to their destinations. One of them was a Tel'tak hurrying to the hidden camp of the Jaffa rebels. The other was the Mothership of Anubis himself, hurrying to watch the progress of his attack on the Tau'ri.

-------------------------

Buffy shuddered and thanked her stars that she was used to life in Colorado, now. She liked snow, but getting up in the morning after sleeping in a tent battered by icy winds was not her favorite activity ever. It even seemed to be a bit too much for the definitely more hardy Jaffa, who while outwardly unfazed by the weather, were a decidedly grimmer bunch in the morning. It didn't help that her trip wasn't turning out like she had been promised. She couldn't blame anyone, but she felt like she was intruding, and meeting both Bra'tac and Rya'c hadn't been much of a distraction, with the old warrior almost studying her and Rya'c too wrapped up in his grief to really notice her.

Maybe what was happening now would change that. It was night, and her second day with the Jaffa was coming to an end. They were having Drey'auc's burial, which to the Jaffa apparently meant having a pyre lit by Teal'c and Rya'c. She looked around and saw Bra'tac watching her, his eyes reflecting the flames. He had been nothing but courteous; still, she couldn't shake the feeling he was judging her every word and move. Worse, she felt like he was finding her lacking in some sort of quality.

The fire filled the camp with wisps of warm air, but she could only focus on the flames and wait. She felt tense, like there was something in the air, like something was coming.

-------------------------

Buffy woke up really early the next morning. She quickly washed, insisting – foolishly, maybe – on being clean rather than warm, before slipping into her warmest clothes, which were getting a bit smelly after a couple of days of repeated use. She went out and did some basic warm-ups to loosen her limbs and heat herself up. She was standing there jumping up and down, when she heard a noise she could only recall from one other time. When they had been stuck on Revanna. It was a Goa'uld ship. It seemed she wasn't alone in noticing it. All over camp, Jaffa warriors were slipping out of their tents with their staffs ready.

A transport ship appeared from the sky and came in slowly for an elegant landing. Teal'c and Bra'tac walked towards it, shoulder to shoulder, apparently being expected to lead by example and approach potential danger first. She slipped closer as well, and wondered if she could get hold of a staff and how exactly it was fired. A single Jaffa left the Tel'tak and approached the two Jaffa leaders.

"Shaq'rel," Teal'c said, sounding happy as she finally got close enough to listen.

"Teal'c, it is good to see you, old friend," the equally huge warrior greeted her friend.

"What brings you here?" Bra'tac asked, also sounding glad to meet the new warrior. She felt the tension drain from the assembled Jaffa, and already a few were drifting back to their chores.

"I came with news. It is fortunate you are here, Teal'c," Shaq'rel said, "The Tau'ri are about to come under attack from Anubis. It may already be too late."

Teal'c scowled for a moment. She just felt a chill run down her spine. Although her mom wasn't supposed to talk about such things with civilians, her mom had shared with her a great deal about the biggest threat to Earth that had ever existed.

"Please tell us everything," Bra'tac said, seemingly unconcerned with the other Jaffa who were slowly drifting away, not particularly interested in the fate of her homeworld, it semeed. Only Rya'c seemed to be listening as intently as she did. He looked at her with a bit of pity in his eyes

"Anubis recently acquired many Jaffa from our former masters, amongst them several loyal to me. They told me that he had recently discovered and activated a weapon of a much older race than the Goa'uld. It supposedly uses one stargate to destroy another. However, it is a large facility, and the weapon cannot be moved. I am afraid that, even though I hurried here as soon as I heard about this threat, Earth might already be under attack," the Jaffa explained.

She wondered what it all meant. She remembered one of her mom's stories about a black hole and how they hadn't been able to disconnect the wormhole and dial out. If this weapon used the Stargate, her mom might be trapped -- and worse yet, she herself would be trapped here. She looked towards the DHD and ran towards it, leaving everyone else to their talking.

She hammered the sequence her mom had made her memorize into the DHD. They were Earth's six coordinates, followed by that Stargate's point of origin symbol. The gate lighted up, dialled, and then the lights shut off and nothing happened. She heard the heavy clanking of three men in armor and a boy trailing them. "Buffy," Teal'c's voice rumbled forth, and she felt his arm come to rest on her shoulder.

"I can't dial home," she said without turning around, not wanting to show them her teary eyes. "Why does this always happen to me?" she mumbled.

"Destiny is a heavy burden. However, the manner in which one deals with it shows one's character. Greatness, true greatness, is thrust upon you -- rarely sought, as is great adversity. You must stand up to it, in order to discover if you are truly great," Bra'tac declared.

She looked at him and remarked, "Great speech." She earned a suspicious scowl, but the older man said nothing.

Shaq'rel said, "We cannot warn the Tau'ri, then, except by ship."

"If the attack has begun, our allies on Earth will have found out by now, and they will try to deal with the problem from their end. A warning would do them little good. The ship will do little good. However, they can have our aid in a different manner. Shaq'rel, can we borrow your Tel'tak for another effort?" Teal'c asked.

"I brought it for that purpose," Shaq'rel declared.

"Good, we must go and find a way to stop the weapon," Teal'c explained.

"My source did not know the location of the weapon, or the address of its Chappa'ai," Shaq'rel replied.

"We are in luck," Bra'tac said with a gleeful light in his eyes, as if he had just won a major battle, "Anubis has spread like a plague over the galaxy; however, he only defends a small number of planets. If we dial each of these worlds in turn and are repeatedly unable to reach one, then it will be our target."

She marveled at the old man's cunning. It seemed like Teal'c and his friends were almost as much a team as SG-1. Teal'c seemed much more commanding here, though. Everyone except Bra'tac seemed to look to him for leadership. She wondered how he handled that and the responsibility it entailed, when he had none of the same duties on Earth.

A thought hit her as the Jaffa talked and then started dialing. She backed away a bit. They wouldn't let her go with them. She was sure of that. No amount of begging would get Teal'c to allow her to go with him to whatever place that weapon was. He would never put her in that kind of danger. Even worse, there was a chance she'd be left here with only strangers to watch her, and if Rya'c had anything to say about it, it wouldn't be him. She was supposed to stay far away from any kind of trouble. But the thought of just waiting here for the danger to pass, or for the Earth to be destroyed and her mom maybe killed, was worse. She knew that if she went, Teal'c would be distracted by her presence, and that might also be a danger to Earth. She felt incredibly torn as the wormhole whooshed open a few yards away.

-------------------------

"What is wrong, Buffy?" Teal'c asked as he came over to sit at her side.

"Teal'c, I'm scared. My mom is on Earth, and I'm here. I'd like to be there with her. I know she is probably happy that I'm here and safe, but I'd still like to be with her. My heart tells me to go with you guys, and fight -- even cheat -- to get there, but I know I shouldn't. I'd be a distraction, and you don't need that. I feel so useless," she admitted.

The great man looked at her and seemed thoughtful. "I must admit, I had planned to search our craft before take-off, expecting to find you aboard. And having to leave you here with no one of my family to watch you makes me almost as nervous as taking you along would. In this case, however, Buffy, you must remain here. For so many reasons, but mostly because I swore an oath to protect you, and bringing you into danger myself would forfeit its purpose," he said.

"Yeah, I know. Being little sucks, when you want to help," she said.

Teal'c nodded, "Time passes more quickly than you expect, soon you will be able to join us on the field of battle. In the meantime, would you do me the honor of watching my family's belongings and guarding them until my return?"

She looked up at the big Jaffa and nodded. After a short while she leaned her head against his shoulder, listening to the noise of the Stargate while the others kept dialing. She enjoyed feeling safe for a little while. Maybe, she tried to convince herself, it wouldn't be so bad to leave the fighting to someone else more often.

-------------------------

She watched the Jaffa shuttle fly away from the camp, leaving her alone with a few days' supply of food and water, three tents, and a load of Jaffa weapons to care for. She wondered if she could even manage that, as she realized she'd have to take care of everything herself for days, possibly longer. Still, she had to get things going -- things like keeping the coals burning, to keep her warm.

"Excuse me," a voice said, and a shadow loomed over her.

She turned to find a smiling, young Jaffa with an eagle tattoo on his forehead standing there. "Yeah," she replied,

"Are you by chance a Tau'ri?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

"And are you, as is rumoured, the daughter of a member of SG-1?" he asked. She didn't know why, because his features were filled with innocence and curiosity, but something about this guy felt wrong.

"Yes, I am the daughter of Samantha Carter and by rite of protection a member of Teal'c's household," she explained, adding the last part as Teal'c had instructed her to, if someone asked what she was doing in his tents.

"Ah, I am honored to meet you. Please convey my gratitude for their actions to your parent and her friends, should you make it back to them. I hope your world is there for your safe return," the young man said, but something in his eyes told her his last words had been insincere. She decided to look out for him in the near future and warn Teal'c about him when he came back. The young man walked away, apparently without a care in the world.

-------------------------

"My Lord, I have a report. I have found a child of the Tau'ri visiting off-world. I am sending you her picture," Au'rac said as he watched Osiris give him an impatient look over his communications device.

"What care is that of mine?" Osiris replied and moved to cut the connection.

"My Lord, she confirmed she is the child of a member of SG-1," he said.

"And...? The Tau'ri and SG-1 are no longer a threat to me or Lord Anubis. Continue your mission and gain the trust of the Jaffa in that camp. They have a secret hideout somewhere. I want to know of it," Osiris ordered, and the connection was cut.

He hid the gray metal ball and lay back on his mat, resting and thinking who he would talk to about recruitment into the rebellion.

-------------------------

She looked up in frustration. Her little scheme to infiltrate the Jaffa resistance movement was not progressing as fast as she liked. In fact, her position in her current master's plans was vastly too minor to make her entirely comfortable. Still, it was something to do while certain long-term plans came to fruition, and as long as Anubis didn't notice her pilfering away some of his precious technology, she'd continue on -- even when, as now, she was relegated to using her mothership to ferry a scientist. A passenger who was currently wandering onto her bridge with a swagger, as though he were someone important.

"Why have we stopped, Osiris?" Thoth demanded.

"It is no business of yours. I was merely talking to a Jaffa of mine," she said in anger, only to turn and find Thoth studying the image her Jaffa spy had sent and which she had still not removed from her viewscreen.

"That girl, I have seen her before," Thoth said and turned towards her.

"So, she is a Tau'ri... a child. What does it matter?" she retorted.

"Wait a moment, please," Thoth stammered and went to her console, inserting the crystal that contained his information. After a few moments spent entering codes in the secret language only Thoth and Anubis seemed to know, an image of the girl floating in a tank of some liquid appeared on the screen. More images showed up-- several in order, in fact -- showing the girl growing older, until she looked like a quite pretty human female. There were more files on this subject, but Thoth didn't open them.

"Our lord tasked my students with a project, years before he showed himself. They were to study a cache of ancient technology, including a unique object of great power. Through that power, they gathered a lot of treasure, but nothing of true value, until they found a race of humans -- females only, apparently – who could, they reported to me and our lord, serve as superhuman hosts capable of defeating even the strongest beings in hand-to-hand combat. Our lord, who is far beyond us, was not greatly interested until a test he ordered performed showed that these beings could prove valuable to him. I do not know what this test was, or its purpose, but while I ordered my students to return her to us in a younger state as ordered by our Lord, they were slaughtered by the Tok'ra, and she was presumed dead... I must admit, we expected their experimentation had done lasting damage to the girl, but we envisioned the possibility of using her de-aged and therefore higher quality ovaries to breed more such females later. If your agent has found her and alive, we must divert our course and take her," Thoth ordered.

"We will do no such thing. Lord Anubis ordered me to bring you to oversee the Kull project, and I told him I would do so. If you want to defy his orders and go after her in a shuttle, feel free to borrow one. But remember, you were told what to do. Oh, and I will tell you her location, if you really want to defy him," she said, a half smile on her lips.

"Give me the location. He will thank me," Thoth said and strode from her bridge, after her Jaffa had punched up the location on the viewscreen.

-------------------------

"I swear, if I ever think about going camping on my own with three tents, no running water, and no sanitation in sight, I will beat myself over the head with a club," she yelled while dancing around in the tent to make herself warm. Her brazier had gone out during the night, and it had been freezing all night and all day yesterday. Washing in cold water hadn't helped, either. She performed gymnastics and did a few handstands, when she heard something moving outside.

There was someone out there, she realized.

"Hey, pervert!" she yelled, tearing the tent flap aside, only to find nothing except the wind moving a toppled-over pot

-------------------------

He moved back inside his tent. The girl had an uncanny ability to detect his presence. He been completely covered by the personal cloaking device given to him by Osiris, yet the girl had sensed him through that and the tent canvas. She fascinated him a little. A blond human girl, not even of age, yet she had a presence that he found intriguing. He had to be careful, though. It appeared she was under the protection of Teal'c, a man whose suspicions he mustn't arouse. As he rested back against his blanket, he felt a spot of warmth underneath it.

He moved the blanket aside and, while looking around and listening for anyone who might overhear, he activated the small communications globe. An image appeared of an unknown man dressed in plain black robes. He was about to will the globe to shut down when the man said, "In the name of Osiris and her master Lord Anubis, I bid you to heed me, Jaffa."

He looked at the globe, surprised by the voice of a god coming from the unimpressive man. "I hear your words and obey, my Lord," he intoned.

"There is, where you are, a girl -- a visitor. You must make ready to bring this girl to me when I arrive. I will be there tomorrow at dawn," the Goa'uld explained.

"It will endanger my position with the Jaffa resistance," he warned.

"I do not care; if your skills are adequate, you will succeed and still continue with your mission," his lord said.

"My Lord," he intoned, thoughts and plans growing in his mind as the picture of one of his gods faded from the globe. The girl was interesting, anyway. The best idea, he thought, was to drug the girl, but he had no drugs. He would have to rely on the zat'ni'katel to subdue her, and then move her under his own power during the night. Maybe he could swing it so he would be put up as one of the guards for the night shift. It should not be too much trouble. The night watch was the most hated, and he hadn't stood guard in days. He got up and looked for the nearest older Jaffa. He was sure a volunteer would be welcomed by his ever-so-honest and earnest people – fools as they were.

-------------------------

She was almost infinitely bored. And the fact that she had no idea if Teal'c was having any luck saving Earth, if there even was an Earth to return to, gnawed at her mind. She needed something, anything, to do to keep her mind off these things. She saw several Jaffa men training with their staffs. She decided, patriarchal rules notwithstanding, she wanted to try that.

She walked over and observed for a few moments, just as her hand-to-hand teachers had drilled into her. Apparently, a part of her talents was the ability to know the weaknesses of her opponents' fighting styles. She quickly noticed that these guys were incredibly skilled, better even than her sensei on Earth. However, while there were no glaring mistakes in their style, she was quickly sure that she could defeat most of them, using minor failings in their style, and -- if she was honest -- her superhuman physique would assure her of winning.

She realized that all she would achieve by fighting would be to make a few Jaffa angry and satisfy her own ego. She felt rather proud of that insight for a moment, only to realize those thoughts had come from her older self. Her flashes of that personality were getting more frequent. According to her therapist, that meant she would one day be able to remember everything. She was sure of the source of these flashes -- the fact that her other self had been some kind of legendary female warrior with a rather abrupt sarcastic personality fitting with what little she knew.

She felt a bit depressed as she borrowed one of the training sticks and decided to do a bit of mock fighting, instead of taking out her frustrations on one of the Jaffa. As she lost herself in the dance of strikes and movements, she remembered flashes of doing the same with an older man with graying brown hair. He seemed to be proud of her, in the moments that he thought she wasn't looking. She remembered secretly treasuring those moments.

"Excuse me," a deep bass voice interrupted her thoughts. She stopped and blinked, before looking towards a Jaffa looking at her curiously.

"What?" she asked, and looked around to see if she had done something or inadvertently entered their training area.

"You seemed to be warming up. Would you like to spar with me?" he asked.

"Ah, I actually didn't... Well, it wouldn't be a fair fight," she said.

"No, I agree. However, it is important even for women to be able to defend themselves," the Jaffa said, and made some darker part of her wish she had the age and face to glare with.

"Alright, but don't cry foul later," she said.

"And don't complain about any bruises," the Jaffa suggested. She couldn't help smiling. Or at least she felt like showing her teeth were in order.

They both readied, then their fight began. She parried, dodged, leapt and kicked. The Jaffa tumbled to the ground, rolled and came at her again. She deflected his lunge, swept his feet out from under him with her staff, then moved out of range of any reprisals. They continued for a while. She was toying with him, she realized. In battle, her combined skill and superhuman body made the contest as unfair as it had been in her thoughts. Still, the Jaffa wasn't angered by this; it seemed, instead, to spur him on.

He struck her arm. She jumped forward, rolled sideways on the packed dirt, and came back up onto her feet. He turned but exposed his side as he did. She swept away his left leg, his guard opened as one hand slipped off his staff, and she used that to push her staff forward into his chest, putting a bit more of her strength into the blow than she had originally planned. The Jaffa sank to his knees, winded. He clapped his hand in the sand to signify his surrender, but she had already run to his side.

"You are a great warrior for one so young. I have never seen any boy or girl fight with such skill. You must have a great teacher," the Jaffa said while gasping for air.

"It is all thanks to the training of Teal'c and the strong inheritance from my mother. She is a member of SG-1, after all," she said, only half lying.

"That much is indisputable now," the Jaffa said.

-------------------------

It was later that day, and somehow her defeat of that Jaffa had opened more metaphoric doors than it had shut. People were more willing to approach her, or at the very least look at her now. Maybe they had just needed to see her do something real, or maybe it was something else, a Jaffa respect for warriors, that made them more willing to accept her. Anyway, that night she ate and talked with Al'rak -- the Jaffa she had defeated -- and his family. It was a different impression of the Jaffa than the one she had gotten from Teal'c, but then he was a very stoic man, whose family was under a great deal of pressure, and had been for a long time.

The night turned out to be quite pleasant, and she ended up going to bed way after ten. She snuggled into her warm tent, now that she had been taught how to light the brazier and set it up so it'd stay lit all night. Al'rak's wife had taught her.

-------------------------

Pain woke her up. Her body was wracked with jolts, and she was unable to move. "That should hold her," a male voice said, apparently to himself. She wanted to jump up and fight, but her limbs felt numb. A fight could be dangerous like that. Someone drew her blankets tightly around her, and soon she was slung over someone's shoulders. She let herself stay limp as he tried to move her out of the tent, apparently struggling to stay quiet. Feeling a bit mean, she let him carry her, while she tried to recover quicker.

He seemed to choose a strange path out of the tent area instead of the direct one. Their goal was up one of the ridges. She grinned to herself as the cursing guy tried to heft her up the hill. She let him carry her halfway up there. Just as he was about to drop her, she pushed herself off the guy, so she could look him in the eye for the moments it took to hammer her fist into his throat. However, her lack of leverage weakened her blow, and he was only left coughing.

She tumbled backwards and came up in a fighting stance. Her opponent reached for his weapon. She jumped forward, over her adversary. She landed behind him, and just as he rose and tried to turn, still wheezing, she kicked with all her power against his lower back. There was a brutal snap, and her opponent fell limp. She stopped dead in her tracks, and a cold shiver ran down her back. She edged forward and took away the weapon that lay abandoned in the forest. To her relief, she saw that the guy was still breathing. In the pale, rose-colored light of the morning that was starting, she recognized him as the creepy Jaffa from earlier. She had to decide how to move him. If she had broken his back, maybe it was better that she didn't.

For a moment she felt like some undefined danger was approaching. She grabbed her blankets and ran for the tent camp. She hoped maybe Al'rak or someone else would be willing to help her.

-------------------------

Teal'c piloted the Tel'tak back towards the tent camp. They had been successful, but they had been unable to dial Earth yet, and he feared the worst. Bra'tac had privately counseled him to let Buffy stay behind while they went to see if the Tau'ri Stargate had exploded. But he knew the girl would want to see such disaster with her own eyes. Bra'tac liked the girl and had suggested that they spare her such a sight. Teal'c promised himself that he would make Bra'tac more amicable to the idea of female warriors in the near future. He felt with what he and his people owed Samantha Carter they'd be fools to waste the talents of half their population. And Buffy might be the next generation of that.

He watched the people of the camp approach as they landed, including a mysteriously Jaffa-clad Buffy standing ready with a staff weapon of her own. She looked quite the little warrior, like that -- in fact, only the chain-mail seemed to be missing.

"It seems your charge has made herself at home," Bra'tac suggested.

"She has a talent for entering diverse groups of strangers," Teal'c agreed.

"Father, will you be having the camp moved?" his son, who had made him very proud in the recent battle, suggested.

"The Tau'ri have their base on another world where it is not only comfortable but also where they can give us resources, as well as shelter. For now, the Jaffa and the Tau'ri need each other, and the friendship they offer is a true," he explained as he moved towards the airlock.

He had barely gotten outside before Buffy ran up to him and said, "Teal'c, look what Al'rak gave me after I kicked the ass of a spy."

He looked up at Al'rak, an old family friend from Chulak, and nodded his thanks. "She speaks the truth, Teal'c," Al'rak approached and explained.

"Duh," Buffy replied and rolled her eyes. She ran off to greet Bra'tac and Rya'c. He considered having Rya'c visit him on Earth more. Exposure to the human ways of thinking would do him great good, and Bra'tac as his teacher would follow along.

"What happened?" he demanded with the girl out of earshot.

"Au'rac, a son of an old ally, was a spy for the Goa'uld. He had a communications globe, and he tried to kidnap Buffy Summers Carter. She defeated him yesterday morning and apprised me of what had happened. I took charge of him, and although I told her I executed him, in reality he died of the wounds she inflicted on him," Al'rak explained.

"The killing blow was hers," Teal'c said and looked over at the still-smiling child.

"Yes, she had shattered his spine and collapsed his windpipe. He was beyond the healing of his symbiote," Al'rak explained, "As he was a spy, I left him to die a slow death."

"Tell no one of this, especially her," he ordered.

"Of course not," Al'rak agreed. "Teal'c, if I may, can I add my voice to your protection of this child? Not because she is beautiful, but because she will become a legend one day, and even legends need a hand from time to time."

"It would be a great honor," Teal'c said, and they shook hands, sealing the decision.

-------------------------

He knew it was too late. It had been too late that morning when that incompetent spy had gotten caught by some guard and stopped. He did not have his prize, nor did he possess the weapons to retrieve her from the rebels. She was a Tau'ri, though. Or at least she lived there. His master would know where that world lay, and with his permission sooner or later he would retrieve her, and then she would reveal the secrets that had already cost both loyal Jaffa and his prized students their lives.

-------------------------

"General Hammond, I can report that Anubis' weapon has been destroyed," Teal'c's voice said over the radio.

"That is great news, Teal'c; congratulations on a well-fought battle," the General said.

"Actually this victory belongs to Rya'c," Teal'c explained.

After the General finished talking to Teal'c, she and Jack went to the microphone and asked, "Teal'c, how is Buffy?"

"I bet she got into trouble," Jack commented.

"She is fine, Major Carter, and she bids me to say she didn't put herself in any danger or get herself involved. So you can... unbunch your panties, Jack O'Neill... Those are most strange words, Buffy Summers... Excuse us, Major; we will talk again when we are on the ground," Teal'c said. She turned her head and saw Jack smirk.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: 

"Buffy!" her mom's voice echoed through their home. She pushed hard against her bed, and the springs launched her up and onto her feet. She walked out into the kitchen area to find her mom removing groceries from a paper bag. Jonas Quinn was doing much the same, albeit at a much slower pace as he studied a lot of the food before he put it down.

"Hi, Mom. Hi, company…oh, it's Jonas, right? How was work?" she asked and grabbed an apple. It was her third that afternoon.

"Fine, so how was school?" her mom asked.

"Boring, we're still repeating stuff we learned last year. For a class called 'advanced' it seems not so much, and the fact that neither of my trainers are back from their vacations has just left me totally jumpy and indeed of some exercise. You think I might get on base to see Teal'c about a few staff lessons tonight?" she asked, guessing that her mom would like the chance to go back and work a bit of overtime, while she entertained the often bored Teal'c.

"Maybe tomorrow; tonight we're having dinner with Jonas," her mom explained.

"Why?" she asked.

Her mom gave her that crooked almost-smile with the look that was supposed to tell her she was being rude. "It is a valid question," she continued.

Jonas was looking at her a little confused.

"I wanted Jonas to try a home-cooked meal from Earth. He's only tried the cafeteria food at the SGC," her mom explained.

"Oh," she said, "Sorry, I didn't know. I wouldn't inflict the cafeteria at the SGC on anyone for that long." She began helping put away the shopping, her thoughts drifting back to the idea of training a bit with Teal'c or someone else who really knew what fighting was like.

-------------------

"So after he just stood there and looked up at the ceiling, I finally figured it out... You could have said something," her mom gave Jonas a playful slap on the shoulder. They had been relating to her what had happened on Earth while she had been with the Jaffa. Jonas was a strange man, a mix of blinding intelligence and an innocence that reminded her a bit of Daniel, except his innocence was somehow different. Daniel's was a scientifically and philosophically driven innocence, while she was beginning to feel that Jonas' innocence was born out of being a more basic kind of pioneer. Daniel had felt more mature. But if Jack had decided to make him a part of SG-1, then a man whose decisions she trusted, trusted Jonas.

"I see, but why didn't you guys just strap the gate to a rocket, instead of bothering with the prototype?" she said.

Jonas looked at Sam, then at Buffy in surprise: "She knows about top secret research projects?"

Her mom grinned a bit at her. "Due to a bit of paper trickery by a few people who shall remain unnamed, Buffy is cleared as highly as I am. It is actually because she had to be allowed to know about the Stargate Program and, well, frankly I didn't want to go about my time off work having to constantly lie to her." Her mom reached over and caressed her chin with a gentle smile that made her all mushy inside. A part of her that was the young teenager wanted to bat the hand away, because it was making her blush, but the older part of her actually overrode those feelings firmly and bade her to let her mom do it. It seemed it soothed some old loneliness she could not grasp the reason for.

"Yeah, and I get to visit my mom and my friends at their workplace," Buffy agreed.

"Your friends…Oh, you mean Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c," Jonas said.

"Yeah, well, and the General, Janet, Walter and Siler, not to mention several of the nurses, my therapist and most of mom's science team," she continued.

"I had no idea," Jonas said and studied her for a few moments.

"Buffy has been involved with the SGC ever since she arrived here," her mom explained.

"I thought you and your daughter were Earthlings," Jonas looked in surprise from her to her mom.

She rolled her eyes. "I am adopted. Mom rescued me from the Goa'uld – well, there was a long adventure after that, but yeah, she did, and we came here. I saw the SGC and got to hear all about the Stargate, and I met lots of cool people," she explained.

"Really, where did you come from originally, then?" Jonas asked.

She really didn't want to talk about that, so she gave her mom a look. She didn't want to dig too much into that right at the moment. Half of what memories were coming back to her of her previous life seemed to be of a superficial Los Angeles life as a cheerleader, a person both she and her mom would be sure to have hated. The other half, still the fuzziest half, were memories of fighting, and those were filled with sadness and, strangely, a sort of brutal joy that came with the fighting and killing her enemies. She didn't like to dwell on that part of her memory too much.

"Buffy is from Earth, just in a parallel reality," her mom said.

"Parallel, really? – well, have you tried to find a way to get her back home?" Jonas asked, all innocence and smiles.

Buffy threw down her fork, gave him a cold stare and left the table. "Buffy, wait," her mom called out, but she just couldn't stand that right at that moment. Memories of death and destruction, all that sadness, and then the feeling of safety and happiness she had felt for ages now. She had never entertained any hope or need to get back to that place. She went out on the mezzanine overlooking the garden and sat down, feeling the warm air drain away her anger.

-------------------

"I'd better go see to her," she said and ran after Buffy. She had an idea about why Buffy had reacted as she did. There were all sorts of unspoken things between Sam and her daughter, and one of them was the slight guilt she felt over not trying harder to return tiny, young Buffy home, rather than just enveloping her in the life of Samantha Carter. Another unspoken thing was all the trauma in the past of her daughter: Buffy had shared some things in the beginning, when they had been told about her other life, but later -- especially after Daniel's death -- she had stopped.

Sam left Jonas with the food and a dismayed look on his face. She found Buffy had not gone too far. Her daughter, with the current hairstyle of long, straight hair, sat out on the mezzanine overlooking her small garden. She looked a bit lonely sitting there, lighted only by the sinking sun. Sam walked out and sat next to her. Buffy leaned her head over onto her upper arm. Her daughter was growing up rapidly, she realized.

"I am sorry," Buffy apologized.

"I know, it's okay. He couldn't have known. I am more worried about why you reacted like you did," she said.

"I know. I am sorry. I guess when he said that, I felt for a moment like I had ignored my past and, well, I felt a bit guilty too, because I'm not sure I want to go back, even if I could. My mom on the other side is dead, and I love you and my life here. I feel that there are people I left behind, or who were left behind, when I got taken, and maybe I owe them. Am I a bad person for not wanting, trying, asking to be brought back to them?" Buffy asked.

"Well, if I am honest, I'd fight tooth and nail to keep you safe, and I'd rather that was at my side. I love you too much to lose you," she said and reached around Buffy and held her. They sat there and shared their warmth for a few moments. "But if we ever find a way back to your home, I would let you choose of your own free will. You deserve to be where you belong, wherever that is," she said. Although in her heart she would rather have something amputated than give Buffy up, she would never hold Buffy back against her will.

"Don't call it home, Mom; my home is here. I decided back when I was told about my past that while I had lived it, I couldn't live in it, and the more I remember, the more I don't want to return. I know I had good friends -- friends for life, actually -- but there were so many issues, so much blame, and so many mistakes. None of us were good at forgiving, and even when we did forgive, it was for the wrong reasons or the wrong people that got forgiven, while old wounds and things were left to fester. Besides, I was so sad all the time, and I don't like the idea of going back to that. I hope I never will feel like life itself is just something you have to get through again," her daughter said.

Sam often vacillated between wishing she knew more of her daughter's past and not wanting it to even exist. This was one of the times when she wished the latter. It was horrible to think that Buffy had been almost suicidal, by the sound of it, and she swore she'd never let it get that bad here, no matter what weight was to be put on her daughter's shoulders. Especially given that she knew many voices were asking her to nudge her daughter towards applying to the Air Force Academy when she was 18. Of course she'd do no such thing, not wanting to influence her daughter at all. She trusted Buffy to choose the career that would make her happy, and in fact, like any parent, while it was a bit hypocritical of her, a small part of her didn't think Buffy would make a great officer. Her daughter was probably too much of a leader to endure the crawl up through the ranks. Besides, she'd rather have Buffy become a scientist, or even some sort of doctor or psychologist, than a fighter. Especially if fighting had in the past brought her daughter so much pain. However, for the most part, she recognized that this would not be how things would turn out. Buffy had seen and felt the Goa'uld in her own body. Her daughter empathized with both the Jaffa and Tok'ra very heavily. And apparently there was also a very intense adventurous spirit in her daughter that she had been and intended to continue actively encouraging.

"Well, say something," Buffy said.

"Sorry, I was just thinking," she replied.

"Heavy thoughts, from the size of that wrinkle," Buffy said, and ran a gentle finger across her brow.

"Something like that," she agreed. "Should we go back and entertain our guest?"

"Yeah, but if he offers to tutor me in any language and replace Daniel, I will throw him through the front door, I swear, and don't think I am joking," Buffy warned.

"He means well," she said.

"I stand by my earlier statement," Buffy said.

"Alright, then let's discourage him from offering anything... Don't you like Jonas?" she asked, having learned to trust Buffy's feelings about people implicitly.

"Oh, no, I like him. I just miss Daniel so much," Buffy said, reminding her that Daniel used to visit every week in the last half year before he had ascended, and it had made him and Buffy really close.

"I know, honey, I miss him too," she admitted. She still often found herself drifting towards his old office, when she was on the way for a snack or at work late and wanted someone to chat to. In fact, she had talked so much with Jonas, who had more or less taken over Daniel's office in his absence, more because of that old habit than because of any actual liking for the alien, in the beginning. These days, the man was growing on her, however.

-------------------

Weeks, then months passed after that evening. The news -- what little her mom revealed between trips into space, underwater, or to Antarctica – was dire. Anubis was seemingly able to see through the disguises of both Tok'ra and Jaffa agents. Jack disappeared for a while, and when he got back he was still intensely gloomy. Her granddad visited, and he also indicated that there were dark times out there. She remembered talking to him and Selmak in the living room, while mom had been making tea.

"Both you and mom seem to wear the dire faces all the time these days... Anubis?" she had asked.

"Kiddo, you shouldn't worry your pretty head with these things. You're a kid -- why don't you focus on your studies? I hear you're still scoring top grades," her Granddad had said.

"Yeah, yeah, top grades in every course except languages. I audit classes in science at the Academy and I will be graduating from high school at 12 and a half. I am not a kid on the inside, Granddad. I never really was. It is a bit like with you and Selmak. You have ages of experience to draw from, but you're also Jacob. I have the experiences and lifetime of another girl to draw on. I am not a teenager. I'm a bit of a mess, really," she had replied.

"For a mess, you seem remarkably well-adjusted," he had said.

"Well, the reason for that is very simple. I have mom, experience with the weird…oh, and Karen, my therapist, who believes me. I just mean I can handle hearing about the bad stuff. There are some pretty horrible stories everywhere on Earth, just as there are in the sky, and I do have an Internet connection. I just want to know what is going on," she had agreed.

He studied her for a while, then Selmak had told her, "Buffy, thanks to you we're actually not as desperate as we could have been. Anubis, however, can get any secret an operative knows out of any live one he catches. So, we have to commit suicide if caught. That has never been the case before now, and it darkens the thoughts of the Tok'ra. We're afraid he will share the technology he uses with other Goa'uld one day. With the recent confirmation of our queen's death our last hope to make our numbers swell significantly is over. One day in the not too distant future, the Tok'ra will become extinct, unless another queen joins our number. Something which has not happened to this day... Needless to say, if we're troubled by Anubis' measures, the rebel Jaffa, who are more soldiers than spies, have had even less success in their missions. We, the System Lords, the Rebel Jaffa, and Earth, are all losing to Anubis. He seems increasingly unbeatable, and every day Jaffa, planets, and ships are added to his armies and gain access to his superior technology. Our only hope is to assassinate the Goa'uld himself, but so far no Tok'ra has even been able to get on the same ship as Anubis."

Still, after all that grim news and all the other things that were happening, her life had gone on, and winter in Colorado was at its height as her birthday approached. Thankfully, although she now remembered her real one, it was suitably close to the one they had picked, and so she was about to celebrate -- for the second time in her life -- her twelfth birthday. The party with Anna, Cassie and a few other kids from school and a few adults had been by yesterday.

She got up and sat under the warm covers of her bed, looking at the snow that filled the window sill outside. The party had been great, except for one fatal flaw. Her mom and SG-1 had been off-world again, to meet with the people that had been the cause of the Tok'ra queen Egeria's death. It was about some drug that everyone thought might be important, if a bit dangerous or something. So she had been forced to have her party at Janet's, and while Cassie didn't mind she had kind of missed having her mom there for the party. But, thankfully, the actual day of her birthday was not the day before but that very day. She hoped her mom would manage to get home to see her.

"Hi, little sis, are you up?" Cassie called out.

"Yeah," she answered.

"Well... Happy Birthday. You should get dressed. Mom... Janet says you get to visit the SGC this afternoon to welcome your mom home for her vacation," Cassie said, after opening the door and poking in her auburn-haired head.

"They want me at the SGC?... I think they're up to something," she suggested.

"Mom said that they want you to make sure your mom actually takes a vacation, instead of going down to Nevada to help work on her pet project. What is it, by the way? I mean, you've been here a lot more than normal," Cassie said.

"You don't mind, I hope," she said.

"Of course not, I was more worried about... Never mind," Cassie said.

"And I know, but I can't tell you. I promised," she replied.

"It is so not fair that you're actually cleared to know what your mom is doing," Cassie said, as the older girl watched her pick out her clothes from her secondary closet. It was a bit weird, she knew, to have two sets of every essential piece of clothing, as well as a second high-powered, ruggedized laptop and a cell phone with both GPS and encryption, but for her it was essential gear, as she often moved between her home and Janet's.

"Well, I know for sure that your mom could have the same set up for you, but I guess she wants you to have a different relationship with the SGC," Buffy said.

Cassie nodded and rolled her eyes before smiling, "She actually thinks I won't apply to the Air Force and try to get work at the SGC the second I can. I am so gonna be working there."

"You and me both," she agreed.

She saw Cassie give her a warm smile before she headed for the shower. She wondered if Cassie wanted to be a doctor like her mom. Probably not, much as Buffy herself wasn't exactly planning on becoming a scientist.

-------------------

She walked into the kitchen, where Janet was running around, putting down hot buns and making sure there was milk and juice on the table. "Good morning, beautiful, and happy birthday," Janet said, and pointed at the already full plate waiting for her. It had been jarring and -- for a girl -- a bit scary at first to eat as much as Buffy had to, but after a few long talks about her metabolism, anorexia, and a short picture show with anorexic girls, she had not so much caved in as completely flip-flopped on her dietary complaints. Sure, she sometimes didn't remember to eat right, but she didn't want to become some sickly stick-figure, either, and so she did eat when told to.

"Thanks," she said and dug in.

She was actually happily consuming her second grapefruit half when Cassie decided to join them, albeit remaining distracted by the music player she was wearing. "Cassie, not at the table, please," Janet said after gently taking one of the earplugs out.

"Sorry," Cassie said and turned off the music player. After a period of teenage issues and Cassie getting dumped by her first boyfriend, the relationship between Cassie and Janet was back to being as healthy as it had been when Buffy had first met them.

"So, Buffy, today your mission is to make sure your mom actually leaves the SGC. Doesn't make any side trips, except to go home and rest until tomorrow, when you and she get picked up and driven to the airport, so you can jet off for a nice ski trip," Janet said.

"Actually, we're driving, and mom said I'd get to snowboard. I hope I can figure that out," she admitted.

Cassie rolled her eyes while smiling, "Spare me the modesty. It is a physical activity. If you apply yourself to it for a few hours, you'll be better than most trained people, and a few days will make you a pro."

"Hey, I never know if I'll be good at anything or not, and it would be very arrogant -- not to mention, a bit dangerous -- to presume that just because I can do that with martial arts I can do it with everything else," she said.

"Really, and exactly how long did it take for you to, say, learn to off-road mountain bike or skate or free-climb? Remember, I have been there a few times when your mom takes you on those small adventures," Cassie replied.

"Ah, it's that skating thing again. I told you my previous self had ice-skated before, and she was almost good at it. Of course I would be able to do a few things on the ice, then. Besides, you're just still smarting from the ice-hockey match afterwards," she said, remembering how she, Jack and Sam had a friendly match against Cassie, Teal'c and Daniel in the late Spring last year. They had totally crushed Cassie's team, even with her mom sucking as a goalie. Jack had been a genius at it, and she had taken to the aggressive sport like a duck to water.

"It was cheating to allow you on the ice," Cassie insisted with a playful smile.

"Jack scored most of our goals," she said in their defense, totally glossing over the fact that she had often been the one to bring the puck from their half over to Jack near the goal so pathetically guarded by the slight, puck-fearing Cassie.

"Only because we stopped when your slap shot shattered a barrier. You would have broken something on me, padding or no padding, if... You know what? Never mind," Cassie said, after looking at the large clock on the kitchen wall, and rose from the table, done eating. The older girl picked up her plate and put it in the dishwasher.

"Mom, I'm gonna visit Vanessa. If you leave before noon, I will see you again tonight, right?" Cassie said.

"See you in a while, Cassie," Buffy said.

Cassie looked up, remembered that Buffy would be away for a week, and rushed over, giving her a hug. "See you soon, Buffy," Cassie replied, before leaving the kitchen. A few minutes later she heard Cassie putting on her jacket and leaving the house.

"We'll be going to the SGC around 11:30, so why don't you see if you can find something to do until then?" Janet said as she finished her breakfast. Buffy thought about it for a moment and decided to have a bit of fun and look up conspiracy theories on-line again. It was always fun to see if any of them were even remotely right or not.

-------------------

A few hours later she was sitting in Janet's SUV as they finally hit the cleared road that led towards the base and the SGC hidden within. It was strange. As they passed the gate she could have sworn one of the Airmen outside the main gate had been following their car with his cell phone. Still, given the traffic and security measures she had to worry about, she soon forgot all about it.

She passed by heavy doors, soldiers who seemed oblivious to her passage, and through all the security checkpoints, as usual. Her fingerprints were verified, her retina was zapped, and four times she passed different forms of scanners that were only disguised as metal detectors, according to her mom. They finally entered the SGC elevator and headed down. "So, are you two going to do anything special for your birthday today?" Janet said.

"Not as far as I know," she replied.

"Oh, I am sure Sam will come up with something," Janet said neutrally. For a moment, Buffy was afraid that there was some sort of tension between Sam and Janet over her, but then decided that it hadn't sounded like that.

They walked out on level 25, where the gate room was. The halls weren't as busy as usual, but given that it was a Sunday that was probably not that unusual. Although the Stargate was always open and the SGC always active, there were usually not that many present on the weekends. General Hammond, who had been speaking with some airman on her arrival, walked over. "Thank you, Doctor, I can take her to the gate. SG-1 radioed in last night and they're arriving in a few minutes," the General said.

"Thanks, sir, I want to review the reports on SG-11 anyway," Janet said and wandered off, giving her a friendly wave goodbye.

The general led her towards the gate room. They walked towards the door, when the warning blared and Walter said over the speakers, "Off-world activation." The general looked unconcerned, and they headed up to the heavy security door to the room. He hit the open button and it slid aside. The room was bathed in the blue-white glow of the Stargate as several people yelled: "Surprise!"

She almost sat down in shock. The gate room was filled with SGC personnel, Jaffa, and Tok'ra. Her mom, Jack and Teal'c were rolling a cake over on a trolley. "Happy twelfth birthday, honey," her mom said and gave her a brilliant smile.

With watery eyes all she could say was, "Thanks." For a moment she felt unusually shy. All those people there to see her. She spotted her Granddad, Ren-al, and several other Tok'ra talking – happily, it seemed – with Bra'tac, Rya'c and a few other Jaffa, including Al'rak.

"There are presents," Jonas said from the side and stepped out of the way to reveal another table filled with items, some gift-wrapped and some not.

"Guys, you're all so nice to me. Thank you, thank you all so much," she said, hoping it was loud enough for everyone to hear.

-------------------

She watched Buffy, a bit dazed but apparently deliriously happy as she unpacked her second set of presents. There was a game console with games from Jack. Teal'c had gotten Buffy a complete selection of his favorite Earth movies. Jonas had gotten R&D to fashion Buffy a very pretty bracelet out of trinium, because he wasn't cleared to leave the base on his own yet. She had bought Buffy several things, including a new and much improved laptop and a very generous gift certificate for the mall that she just knew would be spent on clothes and shoes. More mysterious were the gifts the Jaffa and Tok'ra had brought. Her dad had given Buffy her own little hologram projector, which could show pictures of Buffy, herself, and her dad, as well as a complete animation of the Milky Way galaxy. The other Tok'ra said that they had another gift, but that they wouldn't present it at this party. And the Jaffa…well, after she had been able to convince Teal'c to diplomatically tell Bra'tac that an offer of schooling with him would not be accepted, they had decided on making a complete set of Jaffa battle armor that would await Buffy when she was older and big enough to fill it out. Some other Jaffa had also left one of their training staffs, but that was then the entire haul.

They were just about done handing out the cake and the beverages when Ren-al walked up onto the Stargate ramp and stood in front of the now turned-off Stargate. "People of the Tau'ri, if I may have your attention," she called out. Everyone turned their heads and looked. Jack looked irritated, she noted. After his latest experience with the Tok'ra, he was even more biased against them. "Today we are gathered here to celebrate another year that has passed in the life of someone who has meant much to all of us. We are here to celebrate one of the heroes of Revanna and the one who single-handedly made us see sense and saved so many in doing so. In honor of that deed -- and hopefully many to come in the future, when she reaches adulthood -- I say we should raise our glasses and call out a cheer for Buffy Summers Carter. Long may she live," Ren-al said, and at the Tok'ra's gesture they all yelled out three cheers.

After that the SGC personnel, including at this point many of the SG teams, medical staff and R&D scientists, spontaneously broke out into song – led, she discovered, by the General and Jack. Finally, blushing deeply, Buffy resolutely joined Ren-al on the ramp. "I just want to say thank you all. If not for each and every one of you, none of us would be alive today, least of all me. Take a good look at each other. Today you party together, tomorrow we fight the enemy; let's never see the day when we fight each other," Buffy said and looked around the room, seeking out all three groups, with her eyes lingering on certain Jaffa, Tok'ra, and Jack.

"Hear, hear," her dad called out. Bra'tac and General Hammond added their voices to that.

After the second set of cheers passed and Buffy had gone back to her cake, Sam was about to drift over to her daughter, when Ren-al called out again, "I have one more announcement. In respect for our allies who have aided us so greatly in our troubled times and done so much for the galaxy, we offer the following. We will leave two of our best scientists and teachers here on Earth to help you in your efforts to understand Goa'uld technology, and we would also, in the same spirit, like to offer the Tau'ri and Free Jaffa access to our intelligence and to our subspace communications technology. Although not completely secure, it will allow us to coordinate better and hopefully bring down our enemies faster."

Sam looked over at the General, then to Jack, who looked shocked, and she thought she even saw a hint of Jack's potential forgiveness for the Tok'ra one day. Bra'tac, Teal'c and a couple of Jaffa were conferring, and then Bra'tac stepped forward. "Then we, too, will add what strength we have to a common pool. We are but warriors and often swords will dull if used wrong or for the wrong purpose. We offer our best warriors to any endeavor of the Tau'ri or Tok'ra that we can morally support and are able to aid," he said.

It was like an avalanche, Sam realized. The Tok'ra and Jaffa had a lot of bad blood between them, and both groups in a way looked down on the SGC, but they had always needed each other. The Tok'ra had the science and spy network, but had always been too retiring, too careful, to effect change. The Jaffa were warriors, and while a small rebellion could be led by those, in order for it to spread and last you needed resources, communications, and savvy. The SGC had the savvy and the will to create change, but they didn't have the manpower or the technology that they needed to win more than small victories. Now, because of this party – together with the earlier defeat of the Ash'rak at the Alpha site, Egeria's death, Revanna, and their continued contact with both groups through her dad and Teal'c – what had been weaker alliances had suddenly crystallized into what could be a much stronger coalition, and she was sure the general was already thinking treaty or something again.

-------------------

It was strange: as she stood in the middle of the party, she had a feeling of a great presence. She looked around but couldn't pinpoint it. Then there was a flash of white and Daniel's voice said in her head, "Happy Birthday, Buffy." She tried calling out to him, but the sense of presence had gone and Daniel probably with it. After the speeches and the cake, the gift unwrapping, the thank-yous and lots of cool stuff, the Tok'ra and Jaffa started to leave. Except for Ren-al, Jacob and Bra'tac, who wanted to talk about their speeches. The other guys went back to work, and she headed home with her mom so that they could get ready for their well-deserved vacation.

-------------------

Two days later Samantha Carter was standing at a small table, drinking hot cocoa as she watched her daughter learn snowboarding. It was already obvious that Buffy would be able to go downhill like at least a gifted amateur before the day was over, and probably would be begging permission to enter the half-pipe or something like that before the end of the week.

"Excuse me?" a female voice asked, and a woman dressed from head to foot in obviously new-bought and unworn skiing clothes walked over to stand across from her, almost cutting off her view of Buffy. Sam slowly slipped her hand into her pocket, where she kept the panic button that Jack had made her swear she'd take with her ever since her last kidnapping.

"I am sorry, I don't have time to chat. I'm watching my daughter," she said, and fixed her stare at Buffy, who had just slid a few yards downhill.

"Major Samantha Carter, US. Air Force, assigned to the Deep Space Telemetry project, most of your file is classified, yet you only work in an obscure and apparently over-funded Air Force project, and you have that job despite being a decorated pilot, one of the world's foremost minds on astrophysics, and until a few years ago one of the Air Force pilots believed to be next for rotation in the Shuttle program. I am Julia Donovan from ZNN's 'Inside Access,'" the woman said.

She looked over at the woman, realizing that this could only be an NID agent or a reporter. "I have nothing to say. Now, I am a private citizen enjoying a vacation; would you mind leaving me alone?" she said.

"Major, you have one of the most guarded personnel files in US military history, but that is not why I am here. I have reason to believe that you're part of a military appropriations scandal involving a spin-off of the already wildly over-funded DST project, something called Prometheus, which has had billions of dollars supposedly earmarked for overseas operations funnelled into it, yet it is nothing more than a paper ghost hidden from the American public. Over 2 billion dollars that has been moved into a secret government project outside the regular congressional oversight -- taxpayer's money. I believe my viewers will find that very interesting... My sources tell me that Prometheus involves highly complicated research and that you, Major, are seemingly behind a great part of the technology used in the project. Now if you could, would you please explain to me and your countrymen what is going on?" the woman, whom she now recognized as a famous ZNN reporter, placed a tape recorder in front of her.

She leaned down and said into the recorder, "I have no idea what you're talking about, and I would point out that all those government conspiracy theories are usually wrong."

Julia Donovan sighed and produced two more things, placing them on the table. "Apparently this Prometheus is being produced using this alloy. Now my own lab claim they've never seen anything like it. It appears also to break several rules of current material science according to them. My sources claim it is called Trinium," the reporter said.

That clinched it. They had sprung some sort of gigantic leak. She had to get Buffy and then call the SGC. Her vacation was most likely over, and she wasn't exactly happy with the reporter for that.

"Listen, I have no idea what this material or that Prometheus you're talking about is. I am basically a form of radio astronomer on the Air Force payroll, and now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go get my daughter," she said.

"I had hoped you would be reasonable and understand that the people deserve to be told the truth. Major, I could also go with my other related story, about an apparent freak of nature," the reporter said and switched on a small video player, placing the LCD in front of her. It showed a collection of scenes -- some taken from afar, some taken way too close -- all of them showing Buffy at school or worse, at sports. They showed Buffy entering the mountain, and then there was the cut where Buffy tossed around three military guys for one of her aikido practices.

"Don't you dare bring my daughter into this! And if you call her a freak of nature again, I will shove that..." she almost yelled, but regained control of her temper. She had never felt like this before. She swore that, had she not been a good person, that reporter would have met a fatal accident rather than show that video to anyone else.

"Your daughter. According to what little background I have been able to find, your daughter is adopted but also barely exists. Her paper trail is newly issued. Her birth certificate is fake. Her entire history up until she was adopted by you is classified, and most of her life after that is as well. Major, I don't know if you know this, but that is not normal for an 11…no,12 year old girl. But then your daughter is not exactly normal. She is going to graduate high school in half a year. She tosses around people I can verify are trained by the special forces in what an expert assured me was no mock fight. Honestly, Major, like a lot of other things about the official record, there is something very rotten about your daughter's," Julia Donovan explained.

Sam just got up and strode over to get Buffy, ignoring the reporter calling out for her as she passed through the crowds. Buffy looked up as she approached and seemingly read her intentions. Buffy unbuckled from her board and moved towards her with a look of curiosity on her face.

"Something has come up, I need to call the base," Sam said, and watched a look of annoyance flash across her daughter's face before Buffy just nodded and followed her to their cabin.

-------------------

"To tell you the truth, sir, I am worried. She caught me completely off-guard, but she has good information on the project, including what appeared to be a sample of trinium. She even had disturbingly complete surveillance and information on Buffy," she explained. She had sent Buffy down to the hotel restaurant to eat before what she feared would be a car trip back home to deal with this new problem.

"Major, I will brief the Pentagon on this. I am afraid this cuts your vacation short. It appears we have a leak, and I want both you and your daughter close to the SGC for now," General Hammond said.

"I will drive directly to the base, sir. Could I ask you to have my on-base quarters readied for two? I will be bringing Buffy along. This might be an NID maneuver to get to Buffy again," she suggested.

"I will put things in motion at this end; see you soon, Major," the General said.

She hung up and looked out into the room.

-------------------

It was late at night when she entered the briefing room, finding Jack and the General sitting there awaiting her arrival. "Major, glad you could make it so quickly," the General greeted her.

"Thank you, sir. Any news?" she asked.

"Well, we have verified that Julia Donovan and her editor had a sample of some metal tested at an East Coast lab a few weeks ago. The Pentagon has asked for assistance from the NID and other agencies to look into Miss Donovan's life, but so far we have found nothing linking her to any SGC or Air Force personnel," the General explained.

"Carter, you sure the trinium was real?" Jack asked.

"No, but that she knew the name alone would indicate we have a breach of security, sir," she explained.

"That much is obvious," he agreed.

"The Pentagon is tracking Miss Donovan's movements," the General explained.

"Where is she now?" Jack asked.

"Heading to Washington D.C. She flew out in a private jet immediately after talking to Major Carter. I am sending Major Davis over to try and convince her of the gravity of the matter," the General explained.

"Do we know if there is a genuine report that will be aired?" she asked.

"They haven't started advertising it yet, but it seems that a special report by Julia Donovan will be aired sometime this weekend. So we have four days," the General explained.

-------------------

The next morning had been tense until about midday, when the General had called her in and told her to fly out to Atlanta and meet with Julia Donovan and her editor. She and Major Davis were there to confiscate the footage and evidence, given that a personal appeal by the President, made at the request of General Hammond, had convinced the network owner to order the story pulled.

She had said goodbye to Buffy, who was getting a few lessons in Mastaba by Teal'c in her absence as a sort of 'sorry' for their vacation getting cut short. Only her daughter could regard Jaffa combat training as a gift, she mused, as she and Major Davis stood silently in the lift heading up to the offices of the 'Inside Action' show.

They walked out into the busy corridors, standing out in their dress blues, and walked over to the receptionist. The woman told them to wait for a moment before she disconnected her headset and guided them to a conference room. Outside, the night was approaching, and she knew that somewhere closer to the light, across the globe, her daughter would be sitting down in the SGC cafeteria for a meal with Jonas and Teal'c. She hoped her daughter was happy.

"Welcome," a balding man said as they entered the conference room. He looked both glad and worried at the same time. He felt like a very stressed person to her. "Call me Al, I am the editor for Julia Donovan's segments on 'Inside Action,'" he said. "She'll be joining us shortly."

"Al, we need to talk about my production schedule," Julia Donovan burst into the room, seemingly unprepared for their presence and stopped in her tracks. "What is this?" the reporter asked.

"Julia, please take a seat," the balding man said in a tone that seemed as much a plea as a demand. He was obviously not a strong leader.

"The head office has decided they don't want to air your story on the Air Force at this time," he explained.

"They caved under pressure. Figures. Listen, this won't stop my story. I researched it, I have the footage, the evidence. I'll just go to another network. I'll make sure the truth comes out," Julia started explaining, slowly raising her voice.

"Julia, listen: no American broadcaster will ever air this. The President himself asked the Network owners to stop your story. The President, Julia! That is how dead your story is. It doesn't go higher than that. It stops here, I am afraid," Al explained.

The man was growing on her, Sam thought, and fought back a smirk.

"We're here to pick up your evidence, your footage, your notes and everything else," Major Davis said, and sounded almost as smug as she felt.

"You can't force me to give you anything," Julia said, her eyes narrowed and filled with anger. This was apparently important to her. It was a good thing the reporter didn't know the truth about the Stargate, or there would have be no deterring her.

"Actually, we can... But we would very much prefer it if you would cooperate," Major Davis said.

"I am sure you would like me to. Well, then, listen to this. If I disappear or you try to force me, I have already made sure my evidence goes to certain overseas contacts, including broadcasters in countries that would like nothing better than to ignore the US president or its military," Julia continued.

"You underestimate how far we are willing to go to get your evidence, Miss Donovan," Major Davis nearly yelled.

"Whoa, there. Both of you, relax," the editor said, "There is no need for ultimatums and the like. How about we strike up a compromise?"

"Compromise?" Julia asked.

"Yeah," the editor turned towards them. "Now, whatever Prometheus is, one day in the not too distant future it will be made public, yes? I mean, I figure it is too big to stay secret forever. Am I right?"

She looked at Major Davis, and they both just stared back at the editor uncomprehendingly. Then Major Davis said, "That is a fair assumption."

"Anyway, how about this? You let Julia, me, and a hand-picked camera crew, whom you approve, document this project. You let us document the project and record the facts. Then, when you decide to go public, we get the world exclusive and the first fresh interviews when it happens," the editor offered.

"I don't think so," she said. There was too big a chance of Stargate secrets getting revealed by such a documentary.

"Everyone will sign Non-disclosure Agreements, and the Air Force gets the tape and the notes afterwards, so you decide what happens when," he continued.

"Forget it, they'll sit on it for 50 years," Julia argued.

"Julia, when the President of the United States kills your story, that's it. Game over. You go foreign with this, they could charge you with treason," the editor explained to his reporter, being quite right, too. Not to mention that she knew the NID and several other agencies would stop at nothing to quell any broadcaster, going to lengths she didn't want to know about.

"We will present the idea to our superiors," Major Davis said and got up.

"Wait a minute, what about the girl?" Julia asked.

Major Davis looked confused, as did she. They had agreed to acknowledge nothing about Buffy's situation. "What girl?" Major Davis asked.

"Buffy Summers Carter, the mysterious daughter of Major Carter here. If I am to agree to this, I want her to be in the documentary, as well. I want to know how she could do that to three special forces soldiers," Julia insisted.

"Buffy Carter is a genius, Miss Donovan. She is born with the ability to learn highly difficult physical skills with great ease and, well, her intelligence is merely a quirk of genetics. There is no story there. Major Carter, as her legal guardian, will decline any request to infringe on her privacy -- especially in what is little more than a human interest story. And let's not forget all the laws and practices of privacy that you'd be violating to present Major Carter's daughter on the air against her will and the will of her legal guardian," Major Davis explained.

"It is simple, Major and Major Mom. All or nothing. I don't mind the kid being under the same agreement as the rest, I just want to know how what she did was possible," Julia said.

"My daughter is not involved in any of this. Leave her out of it, Miss Donovan," she said trying to sound as steely as possible. The thought of footage of Buffy being aired or even just leaked revolted her.

"No, Major, I believe she is. A kid of 12 that has a thick but eyes-only DOD file and whom I have video footage of tossing around grown men like rag dolls, I want to meet. Besides, I want to find out if you've really been growing super-soldiers in a lab," the reporter said.

Both Sam and Major Davis looked at each other, then laughed. Still, growing serious for a moment, she turned around and studied the reporter again. "I won't allow any footage of Buffy being made. Would you accept an off the records interview including under the NDA. It is the best I am willing to offer and if you break the agreement not only will I sue you for every thing I can, but there will consequences beyond what you might imagine," she said coldly and made a mental note rattled as she was at that moment that she'd arrange for Teal'c and his Jaffa to meet this reporter should she break their agreement. For a moment she felt almost primally ready for violence.

The reporter seemed to think about it for a while. "I think that is fine. I want Prometheus not your kid anyway," Julia said.

"Goodbye," she said, and left without saying another word.

-------------------

It had taken a great deal of fast-talking by Major Davis to convince Jack and the General to let the reporters do their report on the Prometheus, but in the end Julia Donovan had them over a barrel, and none of them wanted to unleash the NID or worse on the reporter, but neither could they allow the report to air. Instead, they decided to cheat by agreeing with the reporter's demands to tape a documentary, so that they could conveniently lose it and all the evidence, after plugging their leak.

She had struggled against it, but the reporter had kept insisting on meeting Buffy, and so it was that her daughter was introduced to the Prometheus that morning, and now they waited outside the well-concealed entrance, together with Jonas. Buffy had not taken the prospect of going on camera well, not really feeling secure about anyone 'civilian,' as she called it, knowing her secrets. She had just told Buffy to stick to their cover story. Buffy was her adopted daughter from Canada, her paperwork had been destroyed by a fire, she was cleared for top-secret because of her mom's job, and her daughter was able to do the things she did because of her brilliance, not because of any superhuman ability.

She noticed how cute Buffy looked in her sunglasses and flowery sundress. The camera crew rolled up in their van, while Julia arrived with Al in a car. They looked around, probably wondering what they were doing in the middle of Nevada.

"Miss Donovan," she said, not able to muster more than a fake smile, given that the hard-nosed reporter could cause her daughter a great deal of trouble.

"Major," Julia said sounding almost bored.

"This is Jonas Quinn. He'll be joining us on the tour, along with Buffy," she said and gestured towards the pair standing in the shadow of the elevator shaft opening, chatting.

"I guess a couple of billion dollars doesn't buy what it used to," Al said and looked around at the flat barren landscape.

"You'd be surprised," Jonas said with a friendly smile on his lips. It had probably been a good idea to have him and not Jack or Teal'c along, given that Jack had been liable to be really obnoxious and Teal'c had offered last night to have the reporter detained indefinitely on Chulak.

She led the group to the shed and slid her card through the lock to open for the palm print scanner. The wide double blast doors opened to admit them to the inner elevator. She tapped in her personal code and the number of passengers, as well as the access clearance for the presentation. She, Jonas, Al, Julia and Buffy went in, leaving the three-man-and-one-woman film crew outside with two guards who would bring them down after them.

"How far down are we going?" Julia asked.

"Several hundred feet," she replied cryptically, despite knowing the internal dimensions of Earth's one and only starship production yard quite well.

The door slid open and immediately granted them a view of the Prometheus. They left the elevators, with Julia and Al gaping at the sight before them. "I knew it was big, but not this big," Julia stammered.

"This is the Prometheus, also known as the X-303," Sam said with no small amount of pride. The hyperdrive, the shield and the reactors of that ship were engineered from her designs and theories. Soon, however, it would all be fine-tuned, helped by the Tok'ra – although they had thus far been focused more on making some changes to the X-302, mostly on the weapon and drive systems.

"I hope you brought a lot of tape," Julia told her editor. They headed for the ship. Sam trailed behind a bit and looked towards Buffy. Her daughter seemed quite taken with the Prometheus, constantly looking it up and down, despite having seen it earlier in the day.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No... Maybe... It's strange, Mom. I dreamed about this ship, this exact ship, just after we got back from the mountains and you went off to Atlanta to visit her," Buffy said and pointed towards Julia.

"Maybe you had seen the designs on one of your visits to the SGC," Sam suggested.

"Maybe," Buffy agreed and they followed everyone inside.

-------------------

Buffy liked the design of the ship inside. It was well-lit and while it seemed 'spacious' it felt both bulky and strong, capable of surviving combat. Then again, it was supposed to be a sort of aircraft carrier in space. Too bad it cost so much to build that it would take ages before more could be finished, at least according to her mom, when she had asked this morning.

"This is a joke, right? There is no rocket on Earth that can lift this ship, let alone put it in orbit, and it doesn't look capable of re-entry, either," Julia said.

"Prometheus is the third in a series of designs that incorporates both human and alien technology," her mom explained.

"You're saying little green men helped you build this," the nervous bald man said.

"Actually, they're gray," her mom commented. "All the key systems were reverse-engineered from a starship that crashed 100 miles North of Fairbanks, Alaska in 1978. It was only in these last few years that our technology evolved to a point where we could take advantage of what we had found," her mom lied.

The reporter and her editor entered the bridge first. She wanted to see that, as well, however her being ahead of her mom and Jonas, who hung back for a moment, didn't prevent her from hearing. "Fairbanks?" Jonas asked.

"Better than Roswell," her mom replied, making her chuckle and causing Jonas to give her mom an uncomprehending look. It was often easy to forget that Jonas was actually also an alien, so to speak.

"This doesn't look very alien to me," the reporter woman said.

"The controls are all modeled on research done for next generation Navy vessels and adapted by NASA's engineers. Some of the key systems on this ship are actually based on alien crystal technology, rather than wires and chips. The hard part has been making the technologies compatible," her mom said.

The camera crew arrived and started putting up their stuff under the watchful eyes of the two guards. "All right, let's set up the first shot in here and do the interview with the Major," Julia suggested to the editor guy, who nodded almost as if he didn't really care.

"Let's continue the tour until they're ready," Julia suggested. Her mom nodded and led them off the bridge. Buffy was temporarily forgotten and she decided it would be kind of cool to wander the ship for a bit and take a look around.

-------------------

"This ship is capable of reaching orbit in 30 seconds," she explained, proudly remembering, the Pentagon presentation they had given a few years back when telling the brass about their idea and explaining the figures. It had been the moment most of the Joint Chiefs had gone from polite supporters to full-on fans of the SGC.

"What about the G-forces?" Julia asked while looking around with respect.

"Well, if the inertial dampeners and artificial gravity are functioning properly, it shouldn't feel like much more than a ride in a fast elevator," she admitted.

"How long until this thing is ready to fly?" Al asked.

"It'll be a while. A number of support systems are still being assembled," she explained, not wanting to say 'invented', which was actually the case for the ship's weaponry right now. They had already decided on rockets and rail-guns, but a few new ideas from the Jaffa and Tok'ra at the Alpha site -- and hopefully the new Tok'ra support, as well as what they had learned from the Al'kesh from Revanna being disassembled nearby -- all meant that the Joint Chiefs were actually extending the prototype stage, in the hopes they could add armaments like the Al'kesh's energy weapons to their ship.

They walked into the engine room. "This place looks important... And reinforced," Julia said as they walked past the heavy bulkhead.

"This is the engine control room. The engines are out there," she explained and pointed out the glass into the multi-story hyperdrive and reactor room.

"How fast does it go?" Julia's editor asked.

"Using our current model sub-light engines, the ship can accelerate to 110,000 miles per second -- approximately half the speed of light," she explained, unable to keep from smiling.

"Of course, that is nowhere near fast enough for interstellar travel. For that we need the hyperdrive," Jonas said and pointed at a console next to her. Both Julia and Al looked at each other, then at her.

"I get why this is so secret now," Julia said.

"This is possibly the largest collection of scientific and engineering secrets on Earth," she said.

"I'd say," Al agreed.

-------------------

Buffy walked through the halls, noticing how here and there tools were still lying about and stuff being built. The ship was definitely not finished yet. It was also all very exciting. She had climbed down a ladder, expecting that her mom wouldn't mind, especially if it made the reporter woman forget her existence for a while or for good. Being away would help that. She walked into an area that seemed even more heavily shielded than the rest of the ship. "Reactor material bay," the sign outside the door read. She thought it over.

Naquadah and that stuff that Jonas had brought was used to power devices like this spaceship, which meant that this room was probably either for fuel storage or fuel loading. That was usually volatile stuff and therefore the room was shielded even more than the rest of the ship. She continued on, looking for the hangars, hoping to maybe catch a glance of an X-302 or at least just a space hangar.

-------------------

Sam glanced down at the engine room command console. A screen read, "simulation #47 interrupted... System busy."

"What's wrong?" Jonas asked, probably because she had put on a surprised expression. There were supposed to be no other computer activities aside from the simulations that day.

"I'm not sure. The computer was running a series of hyperdrive power curve simulations, but they've been interrupted," she said, an inner voice warning her that this was unlikely to happen by accident, and that having outsiders onboard increased the risk of danger exponentially. Something could be wrong.

"So?" Jonas asked.

"So, there are no other tests scheduled for today, and in fact right now all of the R&D department are off the ship because of the tour." She walked over and activated one of the intra-ship communications handsets. She pressed the bridge button and said, "Engine room to the Bridge. Sergeant Gibson, this is Major Carter, come in." She waited but there was no response, aside from electronic noise.

"Maybe those systems haven't been finished yet," Jonas suggested, but his eyes showed he was beginning to fear the same things she was.

"I doubt it, they worked last time I visited. Listen, I'll go check it out. Keep an eye on those two and be careful: this might be a trick," she said and left.

She went up a few levels and was headed for the engine room, when she heard approaching steps. Two of the camera crew were heading for her, but their body language indicated aggression, not curiosity or friendliness. "Major Carter," one of them called out as they approached her. They were going to get violent; she could read it in their body language.

She tried to seem calm as she replied, "Aren't you supposed to be on the bridge?"

"We had a little trouble with the equipment. We're gonna need another battery from the truck," the other crewman replied.

She saw the guy, who had called out her name drawing a pistol. She punched the guy in the throat, using the technique as shown to Buffy by her latest martial arts teacher in something called Krav Maga. The guy dropped into a fetal position and whimpered, while she spun right and kicked the other guy in the chest. He stumbled back. It never hurt keeping an eye on what one's daughter was learning.

She saw the gun on the floor and had snapped it up, when there was the tell-tale noise of a zat readying to fire. She ducked randomly to the left and saw the blue-white flash hit a wall. She started running, while firing off a few shots back towards her previously unseen assailant.

-------------------

She hadn't found the way down to the hangar deck. Instead she had found what she was pretty sure was the ship's mess. She had barely looked the unfinished kitchen over before she heard a distinct set of sounds that she hadn't expected. One was gunfire; the other was zat fire. It was distant, and she could in fact only hear it at all because of her enhanced senses.

"I swear, I can't go anywhere these days without there being trouble," she said with a sigh.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: 

Buffy debated what to do. She knew that her mom was in trouble somewhere on this labyrinthine maze of a starship. Not because of some sort of mystical sense, but because her mom was the highest ranking officer aboard and would have to get involved with whoever was firing the guns sooner or later, if she wasn't already. She also knew that her mom, Jack and Teal'c would be very stern and frowning with her after she got involved. She hadn't forgotten that she was only twelve years old, but great parts of her personality weren't. And those parts were warning her that she was unarmed against people with firearms, which meant she was at a great disadvantage.

Her mom had taught her to think things through, and while she was raring to go, the idea of strategizing won out for now. She needed some sort of plan. She was aboard a ship in a heavily secured facility. Now it was under attack -- that meant that someone from the outside was attacking. Those outsiders were probably the reporter and her crew. Her mom really didn't like the reporter, so it made sense that part of that dislike was based on mistrust, mistrust that was clearly well-founded. If she was to have an effect on this situation she needed to know what was going on and where exactly everyone was. A starship like this probably had internal sensors, but she had no idea if she could operate them, or if they had even been installed. So she'd have to do it the other way, through gathering human intelligence. She needed someone to tell her, firsthand, what was happening. Ergo she needed a prisoner.

She moved towards the corridor, prowling slowly and carefully. She passed some building materials, including a trinium bar meant for some sort reinforcement of a weaker structure. It was a bit heavy, but she decided to keep it as a weapon, before moving on.

--------------------

Jonas saw something change on one of the monitors. While he had been allowed to view the engine configuration, schematics and physical theories for the hyperdrive and reactors because of their association with Naquadriah research, he was not intimately familiar with all the Prometheus systems. Still, as he read what the instructions that slid across the screen would do, he realized that the problem Major Carter had left to deal with seemed to have escalated. He sat down and tried to enter a few commands to stop the ship from locking down all entrances and exits and switching to internal power.

"What are you doing?" The reporter, Julia Donovan, asked, while moving around to stand behind him.

"Someone is trying to lock down the ship. I can't stop them, but I can slow them down," he said, and typed in a few commands after realizing that some of the things he knew would be useful.

--------------------

Sam was running out of corridors and head-start. While she was armed, so were her three attackers. She spotted a room up the corridor from her. It had no access panel outside, as well as several useful-looking things inside and a heavy security door.

"This way," she heard them yell out somewhere behind her. She turned the corner and pressed the close button. She watched the door close – with painful slowness -- while she held her gun ready. She only caught a glimpse of her attackers before the door slid shut. She looked around the room, until she heard a thunk. She looked back up at the panel and saw that the door had been sealed from the bridge. She was safe but locked in... And that left their attackers in control of the ship, with only Jonas, Buffy, and two probably already overwhelmed airmen to oppose them.

The thought of Buffy being out there on a ship like the Prometheus, alone or with very little protection, didn't fill her with confidence, but rather desperation. She hoped that Buffy would be reasonable and simply try to find a way off the ship before anything bad could happen, but she was afraid that Buffy would not even consider running away. It was not in her daughter's nature.

She looked around and spotted some electronics, a plasma welder and all she'd need to improvise a short-ranged but working radio.

--------------------

He typed in the final commands and put the starship's computer into diagnostic mode. He knew that would slow things down, because he had triggered a full diagnostic on the SGC dialing computer quite by accident a few months ago, while learning the systems from Sergeant Walter Harriman. Still, it could be stopped from the engineering console, so he had to expand his plans. He got up and walked around the console to the access port that exposed the Goa'uld technology that was an essential part of the ship.

"What are you doing?" Miss Donovan asked.

"I am removing a control crystal. You see, the crystals are needed to access several of the essential systems on this ship. Without it, this ship can't do much," he said while slipping the crystal out of the Tau'ri-made electronics.

"Would someone explain what is going on?" Julia asked.

"I believe someone aboard is trying to take over the ship... You or your camera crew maybe," he explained.

"Me... Us... No," Julia said and shook her head vigorously in denial. He wasn't sure if he believed her. He had withheld judgment so far, even with Jack spending hours the day before trying to teach him that this Miss Donovan was some sort of horrible person. He hoped that she wasn't, because he had a feeling that she wasn't, and he would hate to think he could misread someone that badly. He wasn't that much at home on Earth yet, but at least he hoped he had become sufficiently acclimated that he was able to judge the general character of Earth humans.

"Of course not," Al the editor agreed, while Jonas hid the crystal in a nook above the wall. No one would notice it up there.

--------------------

A warm and comfortable familiarity was filling Buffy's body and mind. It was as if all her doubts, thoughts, and even fears were fading by the moment. All that existed was the need to move, listen, and prepare to fight. A part of her she had never dipped too deeply into was being let out of its cage, and she found herself enjoying its presence. It gave her a sense of security, a knowledge that she, and she alone, was the top dog, and that everyone around her was just her prey. She had headed back towards the engineering room, hoping to find out what was going on and maybe link up with her mom and Jonas.

She heard a group of people moving in the corridor up a head. She slowed her progress and grabbed her club closely.

--------------------

Jonas heard a heavy footstep, and suddenly three armed men entered the room, much as SG-1 would have during a combat situation. He put up his hands, happy that he had done what he could to inconvenience them. He hoped that the rest of his fellow prisoners would hold up to the interrogation about the crystal, at least long enough for the base security to overrun the ship. He watched as Al and Julia copied his move.

"What the hell is going on?" Julia asked her supposed camera men, sounding irritated rather than afraid.

"Shut up... God, I have wanted to tell you that for over a year. Thank God, we can finally break cover," the camera man said.

"Smith, come in." The blond man who looked like he was in charge had a radio, and a female voice had just come from it.

"Smith here, go ahead," the man replied into his radio.

"We have a problem. The computer has been tied up with some sort of full diagnostic. I need you to shut it down," the voice replied. Jonas reasoned that the voice meant that the female technician, or whatever she was supposed to be in the faux camera crew, was on the bridge.

The irritated-looking man walked around to the console and tapped in a few commands. He seemed too familiar with the Prometheus technology to not be part of some sort of insider operation. Sam had warned him about something called the NID that would at times try something like this for reasons the SGC wasn't entirely sure about.

"The controls are frozen," one of the armed camera crew men said.

"If you don't close that program, I'm not going to be able to activate the security lockdown and we're gonna be overrun and put down by the security team within a few minutes, when the first check-in doesn't happen," the voice over the radio reported.

The group turned towards them. He tried hard to avoid looking like he knew something and started to think about possibilities. Maybe he could offer them a way to honorably and safely surrender. The SGC would probably only detain them. Then Julia's editor Al stepped forward.

"He removed... this control crystal," Al said after walking over, unhindered, and gathering up the crystal from the overhead nook he had hidden it in. Apparently, there had been one more interloper, and Jonas started to fear that maybe the entire news crew was pitted against him, Sam and - oh, dear - Buffy, who had thankfully not been with them when this had all happened. He wondered about that for a moment. He wondered where the nice young girl had actually gone.

"Al, what are you doing?" Julia asked.

"It must link the computer and the alien systems," Al said, while messing around at the panel Jonas had taken the crystal from.

"Al, what the hell is going on?" Julia asked more insistently, and took a step forward. One of the crew men pointed a gun at her head. Jonas reached out and gently pulled the reporter back, as she was being ignored by Al anyway. Unfortunately, no one was distracted enough that he could attempt an escape, and -- in an effort to seem non-threatening to the news crew -- neither he nor Sam had brought any personal firearms for the tour.

--------------------

Buffy nodded grimly to herself. It was a hostage-taking. She wasn't too comfortable with those. Especially with what sounded like two or three armed men, a woman talking over the radio, and that bitch - according to her mom - reporter's editor helping them. She didn't have a chance of freeing the prisoners in this situation . . . at least, not if she wanted to get out alive. Worse, they knew she was aboard, so she didn't exactly have the drop on them either. Thankfully, it was a big ship to run around in, and she swore she'd lead them on a merry chase when they came for her.

She wondered what would happen next. In the movies the next thing the hostage-takers did was make demands, and if they were serious they'd sacrifice a hostage or make some bomb threat. She'd have to find the bomb, too, so she could lead Jack, Teal'c and any other soldiers that would be coming to their rescue to it. Maybe her mom could have helped, but given the earlier sounds of a gunfight and the capture she had stumbled on, that had probably been her fighting. She wanted to go look for her mom, but she had no idea where her mom could be. It would have to go on her list of things to think about and do later. But for now, as much as she wanted to fight, she had to wait and be patient. She almost gritted her teeth, as she settled in to listen a bit more.

--------------------

"There we go," the female voice over the radio said, after the man at the console had tapped in the commands she had dictated to him.

"What's happening?" Julia asked, looking from Jonas to her editor.

He studied the information flowing across the screens all over the entire room. "They're activating the hyperdrive generators," he said and looked towards his captors. It was clear that they knew enough about the ship to also know that the drive wasn't done yet. Sam was Earth's primary hyperspace expert -- although the Tok'ra help they were expecting would soon be there to replace her, because Sam had hundreds of other projects, her post at the SGC, and Buffy to take care of, as well.

Julia frowned and said, "Is that a good idea? Do they work? And we're also still on the ground."

"Actually, it is a very bad idea to turn them on in an atmosphere, as they're meant for outer space. In fact, what they are doing looks more like they're trying to create an overload... deliberately," he explained and stared at the leader, the man called Smith, who had noticed them talking. He was talking to a larger audience than he'd expected.

"I don't understand," Julia said.

"The hyperdrive generators create an enormous amount of energy, enough to power this state for a month, according to a phrase often used by Major Carter. However, if this energy is not channeled into the actual drive and used to create a hyperspace window, it can cause some serious problems," he said.

"You mean it could explode," Julia said, finally realizing what was going on.

"With enough force to turn the entire state of Nevada into a smoking crater. The subsequent dust and ash clouds would blot out the sun over the continent and lower the temperature globally for years to come," he said, noticing that the hostage-taker and budding terrorist leader called Smith was approaching.

"That's right, but I wouldn't worry about it. As long as our demands are met, it won't come to that," Smith said.

"What demands?" Julia immediately asked, changing into the tone of voice he considered her reporter tone. It was different from her regular way of speaking.

"You're not the people we're giving our demands to. In fact as soon as possible, we're moving you to a storage hold, from which you'll be released in a day or two," Smith said and moved away, ignoring Julia even as she took a step forward.

Smith stopped as if remembering something and looked around. "Al, where is Major Carter's kid?" the man asked.

"I don't know. She left when the Major started telling us about the engines. I think she was bored... Why was she so important anyway?" Al asked. Jonas listened intently.

"The Colonel wants her here. Our information about her blood-work makes him think he needs her for something where we're going... Anyway, we need to find her," Smith said and activated his radio.

"Jones, are the internal sensors operational?" Smith asked.

There was a pause, then the reply came, "No, they haven't been installed yet."

Smith looked around, then said, "Al, you and Anderson will stay here. Michaels, you're with me. We're looking for the kid"

--------------------

Buffy vacillated for a moment as she heard two sets of footsteps approach. She was tempted to set a trap and fight, but she had no idea about her mom's situation or their armaments compared to hers. She decided on a different course, and left her position, heading for an intersection near the mess, where she would have two escape paths and a room to hide in. They'd come looking for her, so she had to figure out a place in the mess hall or kitchen to hide in. She also considered what they were doing. The hijackers were threatening the entire state, maybe the planet, but it sounded like it was just a part of a bigger plot. Buffy wondered if she could figure out enough of the ship's systems to shut down the generators. She figured that it was probably pointless to try and, worse, could give away her position.

All of a sudden she felt a slight hum of power go through the ship, unlike before. It would seem they had gotten the engines running and the power was starting to build. She felt a bit proud of her mom for just a moment. After all, a lot of the technology in the engines had been made with or by her mom.

She arrived in the area where she intended to make her hideout and chose a place to hide in the still-under-construction kitchen, with her club in hand, waiting and thinking.

--------------------

Jack was beyond irritated. He had been against the whole thing all along. He had wanted them to just pull an op, retrieve all the evidence, and incarcerate the reporter for being offensive to the human gene pool or something. But no, Davis had to come up with his nice and diplomatic little idea of a taped tour. And he had even gotten Sam to bring Buffy, after Jack had made an end-run around him and convinced Sam to leave the girl out of it. They would have been able to stop any leak about Buffy using legal means. But no, it hadn't gone down that way, and now he was sitting in this ass-hot car, driving through the desert with Teal'c, who had been glum and almost seething ever since learning what had transpired.

Teal'c was taking his vow to protect Buffy very seriously, and although the stoic guy hadn't said anything, he was half-convinced that Teal'c was only a few thoughts away from asking for permission to talk to his Jaffa cohort and call in a small squad of them to go in and rescue Buffy, Sam and Jonas. Of course, realistically, that wouldn't be permissible or smart, but he sensed that Teal'c was considering something at least like that. He pulled up to the small command post.

He walked towards the clearly not-happy Major and yelled out his anger, "Major Davis! What happened?"

Davis had the grace to look apologetic as he explained, "At approximately 0900 this morning the X-303 was put into lockdown mode. At 0920 we received a radio communication from a male person inside the ship, informing us that they had started the hyperdrive and set it to charge. They're threatening to let it and the reactors meltdown, thereby causing a massive explosion that would destroy the state. They also reported that they had hostages."

"I don't believe it! I do not believe this!" He yelled and was nearly angry enough to kick up the sand.

"We're measuring the energy given off by the prototype, and the readings confirm that an overload is building," Major Davis explained.

"This was supposed to be the most secure facility on the face of the planet. Beyond even the Stargate Command complex. What the hell happened?!" he cursed, while his mind showed him images of Jonas, Sam and Buffy dead on the decks of the unfinished starship, killed because of a mistake made by the man in front of him. It wasn't exactly calming him down.

"We think it was the camera crew, sir," Major Davis said after seeing something in his eyes.

"Did anyone bother with a background check? I bet that reporter is behind this," he said.

"Yes, sir! And they were clean, sir! The chief cameraman was even a decorated Marine, having been on tours of duty to both Iraq and Somalia. Every member of that crew has been with the news network for well over a year, sir!. This plan has obviously been in the works for some time, and I believe even the leak of information to Miss Donovan has been carefully planned," Davis explained.

"You think?" he deadpanned, still too irritated to feel like being helpful.

A younger female officer ran over. "What?!" He barked.

"Sir, we're receiving a transmission from inside. It's from the hijackers," she said.

They ran over to the command post. "Patch it through," Davis said and grabbed an earphone. Jack stayed further back and took another one. He'd let Davis negotiate, just in case it would be useful not to have their opponents in the ship know they were also dealing with him. This all stank of NID, and that meant he had to be clever.

"This is Major Paul Davis, US Air Force. Go ahead," Davis said.

"I assume, by now, you've confirmed the status of the hyperdrive. So you know we're not bluffing," a male voice reported.

"What do you want?" Davis asked.

"You're currently holding two prisoners we want released into our custody: Colonel Frank Simmons and Adrian Conrad. You have exactly two hours to deliver them, or we blow up your ship and the rest of the state with us," the man explained in a tone that told Jack that -- at least until the last moments -- this man would not budge or negotiate. He knew jokers like this. They always had to be almost mortally wounded before the gung-ho stupidity drained from their minds; they were convinced of the rightness of their plan, whatever it was, and were not going to deviate. At least he feared as much, especially if this was a soldier of the NID.

Davis put down the headphone and glanced towards him. "What do you think, sir?" he asked.

"They're not going to negotiate, and we don't have time for anything like big, either. It's gonna take over an hour to bring the prisoners here, so we don't have time to work out much else. It's pretty clever, really. Exactly what I expect from the NID... Get the prisoners, Davis. We need to buy time and find a way aboard," he said, and thought things through for a moment. This had been in preparation for over a year. Which very neatly matched with the capture of Simmons in the first place. This was probably a contingency plan that would leave Simmons free and aboard the Earth's only self-built starship. With the inclusion of Conrad, and maybe Buffy too, it meant that Simmons had a full set of cards for some sort of endgame – though what that endgame was, he still had no idea. Assuming that his suspicions were right, of course.

----------------

She had finally rigged together a workable radio that could at the very least reach into the military band used by the local security force. At least, if she remembered it right. She switched it on and spoke into the microphone she had salvaged from the wall intercom: "This is Major Carter. Can anyone hear me?" She waited for a reply, then switched to another nearby frequency.

--------------------

Buffy was getting tired from being tense. It was strange, trying to keep everything focused and ready, and after a while it became almost meditative. "Breathe in, focus, don't let your concentration drift, let it take in the world around you, breathe out, relax for a moment," a British voice called to her from distant memory.

Suddenly there was a shift, and she felt almost like she had stepped out of her body. There was a song in the air, a threnody of sorrow that slowly faded into the sound of a deep drum. She felt like she was running through the halls of the Prometheus. To her eyes it looked like this very ship. Each step seemed to age her. She passed room upon room, each door hiding a memory she didn't remember. She opened one and saw two scenes, each similar but different, played out before her eyes. She was standing proudly next to her mom and the rest of SG-1 on the bridge of the Prometheus. A gray alien in a chair appeared. Words were exchanged. She was enveloped in white light. After a few moments, the Grim Reaper walked onto the bridge and reached for her mom. The scene faded, showing her looking grimy but unbeaten, tired but resolute, running towards the storage room she had found earlier. She jumped inside and swung the door shut. There was another white flash and she saw herself writhing in pain on a plain turfed in small metal bricks, then nothing. A voice, her old voice, said, "It is your choice this time."

Buffy shook her head and looked around. She was still in her hiding place in the kitcehn safe for the moment. Had she just had a vision like Irene had warned her about and her older self had suffered through many times? She couldn't recall ever having a waking one before, but maybe her patchy memory was just not telling her everything. Anyway, it had been disturbing, indicating a tough choice to be made on her part. A choice between fighting with her mom and SG-1 now, but letting them go alone towards what looked like certain death, or hiding, keeping them safe and being rewarded herself in pain. She knew she should have had some sort of trouble choosing -- at least according to her therapist, who kept insisting that she couldn't keep putting everyone else ahead of herself -- but she didn't think it was hard. In a choice between her pain and death and her mom's or even SG-1's pain and death, she'd always choose to suffer on their behalf. It was just what you did for family and friends. It was natural to her. Besides she was tough, she'd survive... At least, she'd try to.

But she couldn't keep hiding, either. Maybe if she stayed away from the bridge, her mom, and Jack -- wherever he was -- then she could fulfill the second part of the vision. Maybe she could free Jonas and the reporter from the hostage takers, or take a chance and shut down the engine. Anyway, that meant getting off her ass and going back on the prowl.

--------------------

"Where is she?" Smith said, after storming into the engine room for the second time in an hour.

"I've told you. I have no idea. I am afraid that, while we know each other, I am not an expert on Buffy Summers," Jonas replied. He watched at the man stalked over to their guard.

"Listen, be careful, alright? If you hear something strange, handle it with care. That kid is a menace. She's been trained in nearly every martial art they have an instructor for in the Colorado area, and she could break you like a twig. Also, she knows how to think in a fight and plan one as well, so you two stay on guard. She's not above seriously hurting someone to free these two and stop us. Don't let her get the drop on you just because she is tiny, young, and a cute kid," Smith told their guard and Al.

"She can't be that bad," Al argued.

"Listen, mister, you're a civilian and you're not privy to my sources. I have seen the evidence. Fear her, and your head will be in its right frame of mind," Smith said.

"What about Major Carter?" Al asked.

"She's sealed in a chamber on another deck. She can't do any harm," Smith replied.

"No, I mean, can't we use her and the intercoms to get the girl to surrender? That way we can all calm down, and this will all go a lot smoother," Al suggested.

Smith seemed to study the editor for a while, then said, "We can't get in to her, either, but we don't have to. We just have to make the kid think we have her mom."

He activated his radio. "Jones, patch me over to the internal coms. I want as much of the ship as you can arrange to hear me speak," Smith said.

"Go," the female voice replied.

"Buffy Summers Carter, I know you're aboard this ship... Listen, I know you're not a simple little innocent. But you're not in a situation where you can surprise us. We know all there is to know about you... I want you to surrender to me in the engine room within ten minutes, or I will shoot your mom... Not fatally, the first time, but I bet you know what the second shot does," Smith said, and paused as the message echoed out all over the ship.

Buffy's voice replied over the intercom, "Listen, dick-wad, I am not an idiot, either. I know you don't have my mom, and there is no way I will just surrender. If you want me, you have to come and get me... I am waiting out here in the darkness, Mr. Smith."

"So much for that idea," Smith said and looked around the room. He wasn't looking all that surprised; apparently, he had expected Buffy to be wily. However Al and Julia didn't look like they quite believed the exchange they had just overheard.

"I was right, that is not a normal child," Julia whispered.

"She is a genius, that's all," Jonas said, echoing the so-called party line.

--------------------

"Can anyone hear me?" Carter's voice came out over the speakers. He looked up, as did Teal'c, who had been preparing their weapons for whatever would happen next.

"Repeat... this is Major Carter. Is anyone reading this?" Carter said again.

He walked over and took up the headset, speaking into the microphone, "Carter, this is O'Neill. What's your status?"

"I'm locked in the storage room on deck seven," Carter replied. He waved to a soldier to bring him the schematics of the Prometheus.

"What happened?" he asked.

"It was the TV crew, sir. They brought in several weapons... including a zat. They've taken control of the bridge and engine room. However, I just heard an exchange through the door. Apparently, Buffy is still free and on the run within the ship," Carter explained.

"Damn," he whispered. He'd rather have had Buffy in a controlled or safe environment, like with Carter -- or even in the hands of the hostage takers. On her own, the girl was apt to take action and try to free the hostages. They had tried again and again, but he was sure they'd never be able to break the kid out of that particular habit, especially given her abilities. He almost shuddered, reminding himself that Buffy and Sam didn't know that Buffy had taken the life of her would-be kidnapper back on Chu'lak. Thankfully, Teal'c had only shared that knowledge with Jack. It had rattled him a bit, but he was slowly realizing that even while she was only twelve, Buffy would never be an ordinary civilian. Teal'c was onto something when he said he saw future greatness in Buffy. Of course, like any sane person, Jack would never suggest she become a soldier, but he was trying to face up to the idea that it might be inevitable.

"Major, the hijackers are demanding that we hand over Adrian Conrad and Colonel Simmons. We believe very strongly this is a rogue NID operation," Davis told Sam over the radio, while pointing out to Jack where Sam was located.

"Carter, is there any chance they could get that ship off the ground?" he asked, considering again Simmons' involvement.

"It's not finished, sir. It's unarmed, and it could lose structural and environmental integrity if they try," Sam explained.

"Will it fly?" he asked again.

"Yes, sir," she finally admitted.

Davis pointed out some notes on the schematic and said into the microphone on the table, "Major Carter, the sub-light engine control relay is right above you on deck eight. If you can get to it and sever the connection, that would ground them for sure," Davis explained.

"I have a plasma cutter in here, but it will take a while for me to cut my way through the Trinium alloy door," Sam replied.

"We have less than an hour before they blow the ship. We're going to hand over the prisoners to buy you more time and forestall their actions. For now, they are contained anyway," Davis said.

"Carter, I think that they brought Buffy there for a reason. I don't know what, but when you've cut that connection, I suggest you find her and take her into your custody, while we plan for the next step," he said.

"Copy that, sir," Sam replied.

--------------------

Jonas was trying to think of a way to knock out the guard, whom he thought had the only weapon, until he saw that Al had a gun, too. Julia turned towards the man she had probably considered a good friend and asked, "Al, why are you doing this?"

"They're paying me," the man admitted, seemingly without shame, which told Jonas that he really didn't like that man.

"We're supposed to be friends... We've known each other for years," Julia said.

"They're really paying me a lot," Al said.

"Hey, you know there are only two ways off of this ship?" Jonas remarked to the guard and Al, "Hand-cuffs, or a body bag, and the greater a threat you present the greater the chance of it being the latter."

"Don't worry your head about our fate. We have everything under control... Besides, who says we want to get off at all?" their guard said, and smiled at his confusion.

He thought about it. If they didn't want to get off, it meant that they wanted to stay, which probably meant they wanted to move the ship somewhere else. It wasn't easily done, but still any country on Earth -- even many of Earth's corporate entities -- would pay through the nose for the ship, regardless of its origins. There was even the possibility they'd try to get out of the Solar system with it, even if, according to everything he knew, the ship really wasn't able to go to hyperspeed just yet.

--------------------

He watched as Davis arrived with Simmons. Teal'c had Conrad ready in another van, parked close to the one Davis had just gotten out of. Jack wasn't liking the plan. The latest update from Carter had reported only slow going – apparently, their armor-plating was really solid, as if that was much of a surprise.

"That man is probably the most annoying person ever," Davis said while heading for the command post.

"When you move him out of the truck, make sure he doesn't see either me or Teal'c. The snake won't care enough to report about Teal'c, but Simmons might change whatever his plans are if he sees us," he said.

"Sir, I believe Simmons intends to attempt to fly out of here," Davis suggested.

He mulled it over, "I think you might be right. We really need to find a way aboard."

Teal'c walked over, "Adrian Conrad is in custody. His parasite is unusually quiet," the big man said.

"Major Davis just suggested that Simmons would try to fly the X-303 out of here... Got any ideas on how to get in there?" Jack asked. The big Jaffa raised an eyebrow as if to indicate that if he had then he'd have said by now. "Guess not. Me neither," he said.

They watched as Davis radioed the hijackers and told them to expect their company. They had considered trying to assault them, but the hijackers were probably just going to use an airlock to admit the prisoners and never appear physically within their sights, so he had decided against trying that.

--------------------

Buffy scooted up the ladder and came up onto deck 7, closer to the bridge. She moved down the corridor carefully, almost holding her breath. She was getting tired from moving around and having had nothing to eat in a while. She spotted an alcove where they'd probably be putting a door to a room on the other side of the wall soon and settled there to take a breath. She had barely breathed out before she heard the steps of someone approaching.

--------------------

Smith had been there when Simmons had originally extracted Conrad and the alien in his head from the hospital, back during the kidnapping attempt. He hadn't known then, as he did now, why Simmons wanted the girl so badly. Other factions in the Trust had just wanted her for experimentation, but Simmons had known about that cache of artifacts left by some semi-mythic race of aliens called the Ancients. Somehow, the NID had acquired intel about the cache and where it could be. The alien parasite had confirmed Simmons' suspicions about the girl when they had discussed how to get the cache open. Apparently, most Ancient devices were protected against tampering, often by only allowing people with Ancient DNA to use them. Over the ages the Goa'uld had learned about that and even knew that certain of their followers carried the traits, but not who they were. Simmons had theorized that the girl might have the genes after her DNA repair by another Ancient device, but an investigation had been impossible, without an original sample of Ancient DNA.

That had all changed during Simmons' incarceration. The SGC had found an Ancient a few months back, and their agents in the NID had smuggled out the SGC medical department findings and matched them with stolen samples of Buffy Summers' DNA. The fragments and genes were sporadic, but she had them, and so he had amended the original plan to have the girl join them on the ship, so that his boss would have his key when they reached their destination.

Of course, it hadn't gone as easily as that, he mused. She had wandered off during the tour and now she was out there in a large ship. Running loose. He had to capture her -- something that was a thankless mission on a good day, with a squad at your back -- and it seemed he wasn't having a good day. Slowly, he tried to get up again. But his legs felt like Jell-o under him.

He hadn't seen her coming. He had been heading back towards the bridge when the brat had hammered some sort of metal pole into the back of his thighs. He hadn't even suspected she was nearby, until it was too late. He had gone down, and seconds later a blinding-fast kick had knocked him out and apparently moved him a few yards to the other side of the corridor. His world seemed to sway as he got up.

"Shit," he cursed as he braced himself against a wall. His walkie-talkie was gone, as was his zat. That left them with their back-up assault rifle and four guns. It also left Buffy Summers with a zat and access to regular communications. He had to capture her soon, or Simmons would have his ass.

"Smith, you okay?" Michaels asked as he came running up.

"No, let's move the prisoners to a holding room. We need the manpower to get the girl. Oh, and hand me your spare gun; it seems the kid got mine," he said and took a heavy step. His legs protested, but he gritted his teeth and pressed on.

"Simmons and the alien just came aboard," Michaels said.

"Good, then we can get this bucket of crap off the ground and into a much safer position," he mumbled.

They went on for a while, until Simmons called in over the radio, "We're getting ready to take off. Get our passengers stowed away."

--------------------

She was a bit proud. Her little accidental ambush had worked. She had been catching her breath in an alcove, when the apparent leader of the hijackers had just happened down the corridor, heading past her. Not having a big plan she had just taken him down the best she could, while not using her full strength to avoid any fatal injuries. Too bad someone else had been approaching before she could seal the guy into a room. She had decided to hit and run, this time. Still, she had scored a zat and a radio, which she knew she could only listen to if she didn't want her mom and everyone else to think too much about her.

She decided to work her way back towards the engine room and free Jonas. She was sure she could take out two guys, especially having a zat and going up against one pro and one total amateur. She knew she was mostly running around almost aimlessly, but at least moving around so much in the ship had given her a good mental layout of its construction.

She heard movement approaching from behind. Two sets of footsteps this time. She jumped into another ladder shaft down to the deck below, a maneuver only made possible by her size.

--------------------

Jack looked up as one of the soldiers cursed. "Major, they're getting ready to take off," she reported to Davis.

"Thank you," Davis said and turned towards him, "She's running out of time."

"What do you mean? She could still disable the sub-light engines when they reach orbit," he said.

"Deck seven isn't pressurized, the airlocks for that part of the deck weren't going to be installed until next Wednesday. She'll be dead before they reach orbit," Davis explained.

He looked over at Teal'c, who was looking at them, lost in thought.

There was a crackle from the radio, and Simmons' irritatingly smug voice came out of the speaker, "Major Davis, this is Colonel Simmons. We'd like to borrow your little ship for a short day-trip... So if you'd be so kind and retract the roof."

"We'll get right on that, Colonel, however the hydraulics weren't meant to be used just yet and we're having trouble with them," Davis lied.

"Nice try, Major. You have 30 seconds to retract the roof or I will order the overload of the hyperdrive. Simmons out," Simmons' voice cut out with a crackle.

"Do it, Major," Jack said.

"O'Neill, I have an idea. Are the hangar decks of the Prometheus functional?" Teal'c asked.

He looked at Davis.

--------------------

Sam finished the cut and pushed out the heavy armor plate. It landed with a heavy bang. Just as she edged past the still glowing edges of metal and back out into the corridor with her gun ready, there was a change in the tone of the ship. It was the sound of the sub-light engines, which she knew very well worked. She also had a mental flash of the work schedule of the ship, and the words airlock installation deck 7 flashed in her mind, along with a date next week. She started running.

--------------------

Buffy felt the engines, which were close by, come to life with something like a roar, to her ears, as white-hot plasma powered through tubes nearby. They were really getting away now. She needed to find her way from the deck she had escaped to over to the engine room again. Maybe she could sabotage something.

--------------------

They were bumping along as he drove them, as fast as their vehicle could survive, towards the nearby airbase and his objective: the X-302 project. Teal'c, next to him, was looking happy to finally be doing something, or maybe the Jaffa was enjoying a moment of glory for having come up with their plan to fly aboard the X-303 using the hangar bays that were still without sensors. Just in case, they were going to bring two X-302s, so that they could squeeze together for a later evacuation, should it be needed.

With a roar, the Prometheus rose like a small grey object in his rear-view mirrors, as it shot for the sky with a speed that would have left the NASA shuttle pilots green with envy. He hoped Sam had made it out and to safety. He really, really hoped so, or Simmons would suffer the consequences. Accidental misfire. Yeah, that sounded good to him.

--------------------

"You guys get up, you're moving to a different room," Smith said as he walked in looking bruised and ruffled. Jonas immediately remembered the tales he had been told of Major Carter's daughter and the earlier exchange over the intercom.

"Listen, no matter what place on Earth you go, the US will find you," he said.

"Dude, I told you to shut up about that," the guard complained and moved in as if to strike him with his gun.

"We're not staying on Earth, or in orbit. We're going to use the hyperdrive," Smith said.

"The hyperdrive is not operational. We haven't finished setting up the parameters for its field projectors, and Major Carter hasn't even finished the equations to calculate the power-to-speed ratios yet. I can't help you with this," he said when the guard looked at him curiously.

"No, but I can," a man with the voice and bearing of a Goa'uld said as he strode in.

"Come on, let's give this alien some peace to work," Smith said, and together they were guided out of the engine room.

--------------------

Sam was absolutely sure that she hated tiny spaces, but still it was all apart of the job -- especially now. She moved carefully through the air duct towards the junction box at the end of it. She needed to cut the cables in there, so that the sub-light drive would stop working. She made a mental note to have the Prometheus upgraded with a few more back-ups for those cables, when she got back home. It would never do for the ship to be taken out by a single lucky hit or simple sabotage.

She slid the box open and took the cable-cutter she had luckily put in her pocket earlier out. She cut the wires and, to make the sabotage complete, shorted a few more of them by pushing the ends together. The resulting sparks told her that her job was done. Now she needed to find her kid.

--------------------

The two X-302s glided towards the at-drift starship. They slid elegantly into the lower bay, past the force field, and made a soft landing. He got out, while picking up his P-90 and zat from the backseat. Teal'c joined him at the airlock, similarly equipped. They were going hunting.

--------------------

"Sir, if we don't get control back, our orbit will decay and we'll crash back to Earth," Jones reported.

Smith watched Simmons turned towards them, "It has to be either Carter or her kid. If it's Carter, then eliminate the dear Major. Oh, and if it's her kid, then wound it -- but not fatally. We only need it alive for a day, tops. After that the little freak is just another body-bag waiting to be carried off the ship."

He didn't mind that at all. After the treatment the kid had given him, the thought of shooting her along with the Goa'uld would give him a great sense of closure once they were done with the mission. They had all known that the hostages couldn't be allowed to leave alive, anyway. By the end of the trip they would know and have seen too much to be permitted to live.

As he left, he heard Simmons command the alien over the radio, "How long until we have hyperdrive?"

"This technology is very primitive. I am working as fast as I can. I know about your little failure to control the hostages, but I will compensate for your flaws, Colonel," the alien replied.

--------------------

"...I will compensate for your flaws, Colonel," Buffy heard a Goa'uld say. She had to stay back. If she approached and it wasn't distracted, it would sooner or later feel the remnants of her short possession by a parasite years back.

Still, she needed a plan. The thought of being launched into deep space with an alien, the hijackers, and her family, friends and some guests as hostages wasn't exactly rating high on the happy list. She decided to go with frontal assault. If she took out the Goa'uld, then maybe sabotaged the hyperdrive with a bit of violence, they might just be stuck long enough to allow Jack to send up a Goa'uld shuttle, or something with help.

She took a breath, let her body and instincts guide her movements, and ran inside.

The Goa'uld turned towards her and said, "You." But before it could say more she had already fired the zat and rolled sideways. By the time she had spun around to review the entire room, the Goa'uld had collapsed in his chair. She debated killing it, but she couldn't get herself to kill the man caught inside the possessed body not when he was defenseless.

She looked for some way to disable the engine.

--------------------

She saw him moving down the corridor. She decided against shooting one of the hijackers, because of the chance his friends were close. And besides, she wasn't exactly carrying a full clip in her gun anymore. She moved slowly and carefully closer to him. Before he could do anything, she hammered the hilt of her gun into the back of his head. He dropped prone, moaning.

"That must be a family trait," the man who had the bearing to be the leader of this bunch said while stepping into view. She had stepped into a trap.

He levelled a gun at her, while the last of the male hijackers smiled smugly at her. She noticed two outlines behind them in the gloomy corridor, and only her training kept her from smiling. There was the simultaneous sound of zats firing.

The two men dropped and lay there, out cold. Jack fired his zat at the moaning man at her feet. "Let's get them stowed somewhere," Jack said.

--------------------

She opened the engineering console and found something that looked vital, as well as not easily replaceable. It was some sort of alien crystal. A lot of the Goa'uld and Ancient technology was based around these, so she guessed it had something to do with the engines. She unplugged it, just as she heard the sound of metal against metal. Her zat, which she had put down on top of the console, disappeared from view.

"Die, wench," the Goa'uld roared, and a harmless zat shot impacted the place she had just been.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she berated herself mentally, while zig-zagging her way out into the corridor. But the Goa'uld somehow managed to keep up. It seemed all that jazz about the parasite healing you was very true and more effective than she had realized.

"Drop the crystal, and you may yet live," the Goa'uld yelled. But she ignored him. She spotted another of the ladder shafts with an open door. She jumped into it headfirst, preparing herself for the impact.

She landed hands first and felt her arms scream with pain from the landing. She tumbled down and lost her breath for a moment. A zat shot flew down into the floor next to her. The charge sent tingles through her skin. She forced herself back up, shaking off the temporary dizziness. Her opponent slid down the ladder like a fireman down a pole. She ran into what looked like the guts of the engines.

The corridor whizzed by. She noticed a sign on a pipe. It meant flammable and the number was the pressure rating. She picked up her pace and tried to see if there was some sort of valve or opening. She found what she was looking for. There was a place where a smaller pipe went off from the main one. She grabbed hold of it and tugged with all her strength. She heard the metal protest and groan. She put her feet against the wall and tugged with all her body. There was a roar, then the pipe broke loose and a torrent of some sort of reddish toxic-smelling liquid pumped out, as if from a garden hose. She poured it all over the floor, aiming the stream towards the corner from which she could hear her assailant coming.

The Goa'uld slid around the corner and she lifted the stream so that the liquid covered him. The man coughed and protested. The pressure relented, probably as automatics around the ship detected the breech and sealed off the delivery to this section. She didn't care, however. She ran forward towards her enemy. The only thing in her mind now was to win. She wasn't considering much else. The Goa'uld lifted his zat. She kept her posture low. He fired.

She jumped and grabbed the pipes running along the ceiling. Suddenly there was a roar and she felt like someone had just blasted her with hot air, while ripping the air from her lungs. Sweat instantly covered her body, while below the floor and the Goa'uld was covered in liquid flame. The Goa'uld screamed in intense pain, and only then did Buffy realize that she had just killed a man.

The fire suppressing system started to seal the corridor, and so she shimmied her way towards the closing bulkheads, fighting to make it out in time.

--------------------

"Why aren't we ready yet?" he heard Simmons yell.

"Sir, there is no response from the engine room," a female voice replied. He signalled Carter that he and Teal'c would go in first and secure the room, she'd cover them. The woman nodded. They had decided on securing the bridge before looking for Buffy, who they hoped was securely locked away with Jonas or had hidden somewhere on the ship.

"How is the hyperdrive?" Simmons asked, sounding worried.

"I don't know, the computer says it's operational, but given that we have no idea if it even knows the difference between operational and non-operational, I can't say," the female responded. He motioned for Teal'c to advance.

They ran into the room, just as Simmons was about to say something. "Sir," the dark-haired woman yelled.

Simmons turned, firing. The former Colonel was walking his fire towards Jack. There was a single burst of fire, and the man tumbled back, looking totally surprised. Not too strange, considering he hadn't had three bullet holes in his head moments earlier. There was a zat discharge, and the dark-haired woman was downed by Carter. He looked over at Teal'c, not really all that bothered by his actions, but still wondering why the Jaffa hadn't used his zat instead of the P-90. Especially since Jack had given his own zat to Carter.

Teal'c stared back at him for a moment, then looked around the bridge, probably wondering – as he was – where they'd find the Goa'uld. "Let's call out the Goa'uld; they're usually arrogant enough to rise to a challenge," he said.

Sam nodded and went over to the intercom controls and activated them. "This is SG-1. We now have control over this ship. Surrender now and you will not be harmed," Sam said.

There was a long pause while they waited. "Mom, Mom, it's me. The Goa'uld... He's dead," Buffy said, not sounding all that happy about the fact. He winced and looked over at Teal'c, who seemed to be considering how to react. He wasn't sure Sam had understood, yet, what to make of Buffy's comment.

"Get up to the bridge, Buffy," Sam said into the intercom.

"I guess we'd better go find Jonas, too... Oh and the reporter and her editor... I wonder how they all figure into this," he said.

There was a series of blips and cracks from a console. Sam went over and sat down. "Sir, a large object just appeared over our ship," she reported. An image appeared on the screen in front of them. It was an Asgard Cruiser, probably the biggest Asgard ship he had ever seen.

--------------------

She realized that she had made her mom and the rest of SG-1 aware of her. She remembered her vision. Maybe this was the time of her choice. She looked down at herself. She was grimy, teary, and tired. She looked like when she had hidden in the shielded storage room. Maybe that was it. She had to decide now. Go to the bridge and leave somehow, or hide. Her legs started running before her head had decided. She headed for the storage chamber.

--------------------

He looked around at the sound of the Asgard teleporters. Thor himself had come over, seated in what had to be some sort of Asgard command chair. "Thor, buddy, good to see you," he said.

"I am glad to see you as well. I owe you a great debt of gratitude for rescuing me from the grasp of Anubis and an ignoble death trapped aboard his ship," Thor said.

"Think nothing of it," he replied.

"O'Neill, I have come to you with a grave request. I am glad to see that the ship we had detected you building has come so close to completion that it can fly. The Asgard homeworld has become overrun by the Replicators, and we fear that their next target will be this galaxy, especially this planet, given your significance in our recent victories against them. Now we have need of you and this ship," Thor explained.

"Not good news. We're in a bit of a situation ourselves, at the moment," he said, seeing in his mind's eye the mountain of paperwork, frowns, and upset phone conversations that would follow if he took the Prometheus off on some mission now.

"Thor, buddy, there is no way. We have civilians aboard, we're unarmed, and we have neither the supplies nor the engine power to reach your world, which as I recall isn't even in our galaxy," he said.

"We will remove the civilians from your ship, we will provide the weapons and supplies, as well as move you as close as we're able to our homeworld," Thor offered.

"I am sorry, but I can't just take this ship on an intergalactic mission. It isn't mine. I'm not allowed," he tried to explain.

"The Replicators will soon consume our galaxy. As I said, yours will be next," Thor said. He understood that, he really did, but that still didn't mean he could just go off and do what Thor requested. The angry protests would start with Hammond and move up the chain of command.

"I thought we were too primitive for the Replicators to consume," Sam said.

"Yes, but eventually your natural resources would be required for the Replicators to expand, which remains their primary objective. If we don't stop them now, your extinction will be guaranteed," Thor explained.

"I know. Ours, as well as that of any other planet we know of," Sam agreed.

Teal'c brought Jonas up onto the bridge. "Hi... Did all of the Asgard escape?" Jack asked, turning his attention back to Thor.

"Most. A great battle was fought to allow most of our population to escape into the void between our two galaxies. They are now waiting to hear your response and hoping for success," Thor replied.

"My response," he said.

"You are our last hope; we have done all that we have been able to before coming to you with our problem," Thor explained.

"I still have to ask for permission, and we need to make sure everyone else is off the ship," he said.

"I will arrange it immediately," Thor said and moved the control stone on his chair.

--------------------

Buffy slammed the door closed and sat down, out of breath, which was something of an effort to provoke, even for her. She was sure she had broken several of her own records to get there. She felt a slight tingle for a moment but it passed. She hoped she had done it right and her mom would be safe.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: 

"Everyone else is off this ship," Thor said.

"You sure?" Carter asked. They hadn't seen Buffy after her report of the Goa'uld's demise --something Jack would rather not think about. He was glad the kid would be safe at the SGC, though he was sure she'd be upset at their sudden disappearance.

"Yes, Major. At this moment our transports are moving the contents of the SGC armory and mess hall, as well as attire, food, and all types of supplies I could imagine you would need to the storage rooms on the accessible decks of this vessel. Though I would have been overjoyed to make sure it was in full working condition before leaving orbit, had we had the time, it will only need to fly a short distance along a course we are adding to your ship's computers as we speak. All needed charts and any adjustment to your technology will be complete by the time we exit hyperspace near the Asgard home galaxy," Thor explained.

"I hope you did the paper work, too," He mumbled, mentally wincing at the image of several irate supply officers running around the SGC at the moment. Someone would have his ass up for court-martial over this mission, if they failed. Details such as missing paper work were usually forgotten if they won. He guessed it was time to put his foot down. He didn't like to do things like this, but a slight hint that Earth would like a bit of gratitude or something in return was in order.

"Listen, I haven't said 'yes' yet... Thor, this ship isn't under my command. If we use it, I have to be able to convince my superiors that the mission was for the benefit of Earth, and -- short-sighted bastards that our politicians are -- the removal of the future threat of the Replicators isn't going to convince them, this time," he said. He hated being so mercenary when it came to critical stuff like this; however, a slight prod never hurt, and he intended to go through with the mission, either way.

"Can I convince you somehow?" Thor asked, making his heart go out to the tiny alien with the giant responsibility.

"Promise me a little bit, just a tiny little bit, of help with the technologies we have found ourselves. No Asgard technology, just some teaching?" he asked.

Thor blinked and seemed to nod, "Teaching is always a good idea. I am sure we can agree to that."

"Good, then let's go," he said.

Thor pressed a button on his chair and the view outside changed rapidly. "The journey to our home galaxy will take many hours with your ship in tow, and I am afraid that every moment counts... Literally, I fear," Thor explained.

"Er, um . . .Thor, I still have to talk to the General. I have to tell someone what we're doing," he said.

"I will arrange a way for you to consult with your superiors en route," Thor said.

------------------

He was worried about his people and his ship. A few minutes ago several prisoners had appeared in their cells via Asgard transporters, and now he had reports that the Prometheus had disappeared from orbit. Something very strange was going on, because their prisoners were the hijackers, yet the prototype hadn't been returned yet.

"Sergeant, what is it?" he asked as a very worried-looking Siler ran in.

"I can't explain it, sir. It's like a bit of everything in the armory just walked out the door. P90s, SPAZ 12s, SAWs, Claymores, C4, Zats, Staff weapons. Worse, we're suddenly almost out of ammo, body armor, and other combat gear. I also ran into a few guys from the mess hall. They say that their storeroom was completely emptied," Siler explained.

Hammond looked over at Sergeant Harriman, "Sir, we have verified that the people who commandeered the X-303 are the people we have in our custody. We also have two bodies Colonel Simmons and a charred corpse. The female reporter was also transported here, but unlike the others she landed in the cafeteria, instead of the cells."

"What is going on?" he asked, looking from sergeant to sergeant.

"Ah... Hello, sir. Hi, Siler; keeping out of trouble?" Jack's voice said. He turned and saw what he presumed was a hologram of his second-in-command.

"Colonel. It's good to see you alive and well. We were concerned that the X-303 had been lost with all hands," he said.

"We're all fine. Except the Goa'uld and Simmons, of course," Jack said, looking a bit smug. He hadn't known that the Colonel held such dislike for Simmons.

"So, you have come in contact with the Asgard, if my guess about the hologram and the transporters is right," he surmised.

"Correct, sir. They need us and the ship to stop the Replicators from winning their little war. They say if we don't help, Earth and our galaxy will be next," Jack explained.

"That explains why supplies and equipment disappeared from all over my base," he said.

"Yes, sir. Thor decided we needed it for our mission. Suffice it to say that this is on the level that you should probably go press '1' on the speed-dial and tell the people on the other end that if we fail, all hell is coming soon," Jack said.

"You really think my grandchildren need to know that?" he asked, having gotten the habit of wisecracking from his 2IC.

"I was counting on someone bit less important, maybe along the lines of the President or the Joint Chiefs. Tell them we're borrowing the Prometheus and promise to bring it back, along with a promise from the Asgard that they'll help us understand some of the technology we have found a bit better," Jack explained.

"I think they could be convinced that is a good idea. Good luck and Godspeed, Colonel," he said and watched the hologram start to disappear. It wasn't until a few moments later that he wondered where Buffy was. He hoped that SG-1 hadn't decided to bring her along. People higher up in the chain of command were getting a bit annoyed at the girl's level of access to the SGC, and others didn't like that the girl was brought into danger.

------------------

Sam watched Jack walk back onto the bridge looking a bit disappointed. "What?" she asked.

"They didn't go for it," he said.

"They didn't approve the mission?" She asked, surprised that they wouldn't allow them to use the ship even for such an important mission. This ship wasn't just a precious gem. It was meant to be used. What was the point of building one, if not to use it?

"Oh no, they approved that immediately. Once they knew the stakes and that we had jumped into another one of those 'fate of the universe' things, both the President and Hammond probably realized that we had no choice. Either way, Hammond sends his best wishes and all that other stuff he says when he isn't expecting us home ever again, but is hoping for the best anyway," Jack said.

"Oh, what didn't they go for, then?" she asked.

"My name for the ship," Jack said, but his eyes revealed that he was just trying to be funny. She knew the name he had been campaigning for.

"Sir, they can't name it 'Enterprise'. It would be wrong... It would be tacky... Besides, I like 'Prometheus'," she said.

"Oh, come on! That's the name of a Greek titan getting his liver pecked out. I say we start a good tradition and name it after TV stuff -- then maybe I can get them to build one called 'Homer'," Jack argued.

"You didn't actually tell them that," she said, smiling.

Jack shook his head and turned serious for a moment, "Nah, I didn't have time... I think it's time to have Thor tell us more about what is going on."

"No matter what is going on, he is in a hurry. The speeds we're reaching are insane, even for the Asgard," she tried to explain.

Jack went to their communications console and called up the Asgard, "Thor, buddy, I think it's time you explain what's going on."

There was the usual white flash, and Thor appeared in his command chair. "O'Neill," he said and looked at the rest of them. Teal'c and Jonas had been busy helping her get as much as they could of the Prometheus up and running.

"We kind of wanted to know what happened back on your planet," Jack said.

Thor nodded, "You may remember the android you handed over to us. Well, after further experimentation, the Asgard High Command decided to use it to set a trap for the Replicators. We boosted the signal codes contained within its core programming to attract the Replicators, and as we had planned they all came converging on our home world in one large swarm following the imperatives in the programming given to them from their original source. We made a pretense of trying to turn them away, to make our retreat look unplanned, while almost our entire civilization fled to the void between the galaxies. You see, we had made our world into a trap. On its surface, next to the body, we had planted a time dilation device," Thor explained.

Jack looked towards her, but she barely noticed as her mind boggled at the very idea of a race having the ability to manipulate time. She had once again underestimated just how far ahead of them the Asgard were. She was sure it was their gentle and self-effacing manner that made her fall into that trap time and again. She couldn't help voicing an impressed, "Wow!"

"What is it?" Jack asked her.

"A device that slows time, sir. For how big an area, Thor?" she turned to the Asgard and asked.

"The entire planet. It was meant to capture all the Replicators there, and so allow us enough time to develop a permanent solution to the threat they represented. However, that is where we ran into trouble. The device seems to have malfunctioned. Fortunately, the Replicators have spared it so far, and have focused on consuming our planet -- or so we think. The time dilation device remains there, and we ask that you go there and reactivate it on a timer, while you make your escape," Thor explained.

"Uh-huh, sounds a bit hinky," Jack said.

"I will assist Major Carter in building a timer from Earth materials, something that you can bring unobstructed to the machine and use to interface with it. Thankfully, we made the control interface akin to an advanced timer. Also, we will be monitoring you from afar, and I promise if things go wrong I will do my best to rescue you... and your ship," Thor added, after a look from Jack. Only then did Jack nod agreement.

Sam just knew that the next hour or so would be one long struggle to translate superior Asgard technology into Earth equivalents. She thought of Buffy worrying about her back on Earth, alone. But she told herself it was best that her girl worried without knowing of this very real danger. For a moment, she wanted a hug from her daughter -- the one person she knew who always loved her and accepted her, even when she was being a big geek.

"Well, if that is all we have to do... piece of cake," Jack said.

"You think so, Colonel?" Jonas commented.

"No... I meant, I want a piece of cake. Where's the food?" Jack asked.

"Cargo bay three," she said, already beginning to wonder what she'd learn from Thor as the grey alien approached. She barely noticed the three other members of her team quietly leave to feed their cravings.

------------------

Buffy's stomach growled once again. "Stupid Janet and her stupid diet. Now, I'm all used to being fed," she mumbled, and once again took stock of her heavily shielded naquadah storage room. She wondered if she'd get some sort of vision, telling her when she could leave her hideout -- but then, according to her memory, her prophetic abilities had never been that easy to understand, nor had she never been able to use them on command.

She decided to give the entire thing at least one more hour; then she'd go up to the bridge, no matter what... And they'd better have a sandwich or something like that around.

She had waited for what turned out to nearly an hour when something changed. Up until then, the ship felt like it was moving, though the engines hadn't hummed like they had when they had taken off. But now the feeling of movement had stopped. There were a few moments of quiet, then the engines hummed into life with a roar. They were flying under their own power. Maybe that was the sign she had been waiting for. She decided that -- according to her stomach, at least -- it must be. It was time to go up and face the music.

She opened the heavily shielded bulkhead doors and moved out of the naquadah and naquadriah storage area. She headed for the nearest ladder, not trusting the elevators.

------------------

He didn't care for this mission at all. It seemed that the Replicators had manipulated the Asgard Time thingy and made time go faster for Thor's home world by a factor of ten. That meant that the Replicators knew what the device was for and probably had it under guard. Thor's behavior earlier had almost screamed 'urgency', and Jack was absolutely sure that wasn't a good sign. Thor had said goodbye with a promise to watch over them as best he could and had left a few minutes ago, which meant the Asgard were far, far away already, given their insanely fast hyperdrives.

Still, a lot of good things could be said for having a starship under his command. He, Carter, Teal'c and Jonas were improvising their act as a bridge crew, with only Carter really knowing all the stuff that was going on. But still, if it hadn't it been for the imminent doom they were heading for, he was sure they'd all have big grins plastered on their faces. Earth's first big starship worked.

"Carter, how long until we reach our destination?" he asked.

"About six hours, sir," Carter replied.

"Alright, Jonas, you're coming with me. This is the biggest, most dangerous mission you've ever gone out on. I need to know you can reload your rifle fast enough," he said and got up.

For a moment he felt like he had seen something on the edge of his peripheral vision out in the corridor, but when he looked, he saw nothing. Jonas followed him out there, but when they passed the place he had seen something, it was definitely empty. He really hoped he wasn't getting jumpy already: that wasn't supposed to happen until they reached the Replicators.

------------------

Buffy watched Jack and Jonas pass underneath her as she struggled to hold herself up against the ceiling by pressing hard against two pipes with her hands and feet. She grabbed the pipe in front of her and allowed herself to dangle from it before dropping almost silently to the floor. She had come up to the bridge, thinking that she could reveal her presence finally, but everyone was looking grim in that usual, "No, you cannot help, Buffy," fashion her mom and friends sometimes assumed. So it was probably back to hiding for her -- at least, after she had found something to eat and drink. She decided to rummage around and see if she couldn't find a trace of something to eat.

------------------

Buffy passed Jack and Jonas in what was probably the impromptu armory, where Jack was making Jonas load and reload some sort of rifle, then move on to a sidearm. She ignored them, though, because her nose caught the faint smell of vanilla in the air. It smelled like an ice cream parlor.

A few minutes later she finally found her goal. A room filled with food and drinks. She immediately set about devouring enough to get her back into shape. She noticed her ash covered arms and guessed she looked and smelled like a mess, or at best like a slightly burnt Buffy. Still, she guessed there wouldn't be any showers hooked up, or at least none loaded with water. So instead she settled in to eat and drink to her heart's delight. After eating, she propped herself up against what appeared to be a stack of clothes. She barely rested there for a few moments before her eyes fell shut, and soon after she was sound asleep.

A good while later she woke up with a vague recollection of loud noises having disturbed her dreams a short while back. Suddenly the thought of having forgotten where she was and what situation she was in brought her totally awake with a gasp. She had dozed off, apparently, in response to feeling full. "Idiot," she cursed, and rose and jogged back towards the storeroom where Jack and Jonas had been training, guessing that if they were still there she hadn't missed anything. They weren't.

She hurried closer to the bridge but found it equally empty. She walked onto it, feeling very weird suddenly finding herself all alone on the starship. The view outside was of a dark landscape with lightning flashing from the totally overcast skies. They had landed on some alien planet on a huge featureless plain with only a strange geometric structure sticking up from the ground for miles and miles. It was the same landscape that she had seen in her dreams. Dreams in which she was being tortured. She debated going out there, but there was really no choice. She guessed that, if she was to mean anything, if she had stowed away for a reason, then it had to be to change the outcome of whatever events were going on out there. Which meant she had to go into that place out on the plain.

She decided that maybe bringing a few weapons would be okay, no matter what Jack, her mom, or maybe even Jonas thought of that. Teal'c would approve, if she knew how to use them wisely, but he was just one voice out of four. Still, after a sigh from just thinking of the coming tirade from Jack, she dashed for the armory.

------------------

Buffy moved across the foggy and apparently metallic ground, carrying the P-90 she had grabbed from the armory, while a handgun and a zat hung from the weapon belts she had slung in an X pattern over her chest. It had been the only viable solution, as none of the body armor had really been her size. "This is, like, a total Rambo moment. All I need now is a few more snarky comments with my opponent, and I'm living in an action flick," she mused as she found a winding staircase leading down into the weird structure.

She had a definite feeling of being watched, a feeling that had been persistent ever since she had found her way out of the Prometheus.

Buffy descended into the darkness. There was a sound of something moving at the edge of her hearing, never enough to actually tell her what it was. She felt her heart throb, and the feeling of being on the prowl returned. Her fear drained away. All need to rationalize disappeared; now, all she could do was act.

The stairs ended. She carefully crouched and saw a column-filled room built around some sort of glass thing that looked vastly different, compared to the rest, and she guessed it was somehow foreign to this place. She also saw something that almost made her gasp. Four human-looking people had her mom and SG-1 crouching, disarmed and clearly in pain, in front of them. A fifth guy with black curly hair was watching with a slightly disapproving look on his face, as were literally hundreds of bug-like robots. The robots looked they were made of blocks -- blocks that were a bit too much like the ones she was standing on. She looked down at them, fearing that the floor or walls... the entire place could be one gigantic trap. She understood a bit better why all SG-1's gear looked like it had just been put down, rather than used in a vicious battle. There was probably no point.

Well, there was also no point in giving up, either. Her mom groaned, which made her almost jump forward, and she had to force herself to stay still. A deep and dark anger flowed forth from the recesses of her mind. It told her to attack, to kill them all. But she kept it tightly in check, seeing that the entity that had her mom had somehow melded his hands with her mom's skin, and maybe even her brain. An attack might be fatal for her mom. She decided to withdraw a bit up the stairs to think.

"Is someone up there?" a voice called out, and the black-haired guy walked towards her. She decided to not take a chance. Maybe she could take that guy as a hostage and have the others let SG-1 go. She charged forward and launched herself into a flying kick.

She hit with a precision that would've impressed her trainers and the power to smash a metal door. The guy barely stumbled back. He hadn't felt soft enough for a humanoid. "Stop that," he complained, as if she had just been a nuisance. She flipped herself backwards as she fell, having given all her power to move him. A quick tumble landed her back on her feet.

It was finally time, something in her head told her. It was time to use her real strength, not the lesser power she reserved for soft, breakable people and trainers. Buffy dashed forward. This guy was totally worthless in a fight, though. He lifted his hands in an ineffectual attempt to ward her off. She ducked under his arms and hammered her fist into his gut, making his body arch forward as the force of her blow lifted him a few feet into the air.

She didn't pause, but spun to deliver her most powerful kick to his gut, sending him across the room into a pillar and apparent unconsciousness. All around her the little robots surged into life. One flew past her, nearly hitting her with its pincers. She ducked under it, jumped over four charging for her, and slid the last few feet over the metal floor to grab the guy she had knocked out.

"Stop, or I kill him," she called out, hoping that the robots had some sort of intelligence, as their sudden activation hinted.

One of the men, the one who had held Jack under his control, looked up at her. He looked older, almost distinguished, compared to the others. He looked at the guy she was holding with disappointment, then at her with contempt. "You'll let him go now, or I will kill this man, Buffy Summers. And if you still haven't let him go after that, I will continue down the line until I reach your mother," he said in a voice that held not even the slightest hint of a bluff.

"I will kill him if you don't let us all go," she replied through clenched teeth, not willing to give up. She was looking at the stairs, considering if she could make it out or at least back to the rifle she had left up on the steps.

"Forget all about escape. We are everywhere on this planet. Your ship will not leave without our permission, and there is no one but us on this world," he said.

"Who are you people?" she asked.

"We are the Replicators. Well, those of us in humanoid form are the next evolutionary step of our race, but we are still true to our nature. What interests me more is, who are you, Buffy Summers? Yes, I know your name from Jack's mind. He has such fascinating things hidden away in it. Secrets about you that even you don't know," he said and walked towards her.

"I will kill him," Buffy said as he approached, and she grabbed the black-haired guy's head as if making ready to snap his neck.

"No, you will not. And by the way, he has neither vertebrae nor any vital functions in his head that other parts of his body can't compensate for instantly. You're not equipped to kill him," he said and stopped in front of her.

She looked into his eyes and still saw no lies. Buffy sighed. It seemed what she had dreamed was inevitable. "Fine," she said and let go of the black-haired guy, who suspiciously instantly seemed fine and fully awake after she let go.

Buffy wondered about that for a moment, before the older Replicator guy took her hands almost gently and said, "Try to relax; there is no way to resist us, anyway." He let go of her hands and slid his hands against her temples. She tried at least to prepare for the pain, but when it came it was far beyond anything she had ever experienced.

------------------

The pain disappeared. Buffy looked around. She was walking in a sewer, hand in hand with a kid with ice cold hands. She was wearing her prom dress. She remembered. It was her night to die.

She looked to the right. It was supposed to be just her and the kid, but the old Replicator was walking along with her. "This will be fascinating. Your memories are strange, you have three sets. An old life without a sister, a life with a sister, and yet another life with Sam Carter. I am looking forward to understanding it all," the Replicator dude explained.

"Good luck with that; I sure don't," she said.

There was a sense of indignation and even anger coming from somewhere outside of her self.

"I find you so fascinating. Your mind is different from the rest. It is almost like you have two. One is a fairly advanced human mind seated in a human brain. For that one, you can thank your new mother and her healing of you. It is that one that has amnesia, yet has been filled with all the knowledge they have been able to give you. The other part of you is an enigma to me. I cannot access it. What little I can glimpse is of a thing filled with darkness, chaos, and a deep need to fight and kill. I think you're supposed to turn left now, Buffy," he said.

"I don't want to do this again," she said.

"You have to. We have to see everything you've ever seen," he replied.

She turned and sighed. The Replicator was forgotten. It was time to try and take down the Master again. Only she knew she wouldn't.

------------------

Sam woke up and looked around in confusion. They were back aboard the Prometheus. She looked around more carefully. Jack, Teal'c and Jonas were all seated at their stations on the bridge, just like her.

"Crap! Holy Jesus!" Jack yelled as he woke up.

"Sir," she said as he approached her.

Jack turned and looked at Jonas. She saw Teal'c shaking his head, as if to clear it. She didn't like the look on his face. It was fear. She knew how it felt; she felt it too. She had not felt so violated since the earliest moments of her possession by Jolinar. She did have some experience with that kind of mental invasion, but it had still rattled her. She'd rather never go through that again. Still, the shaken look on Teal'c's face, of all people, just made things worse.

"His hand was inside my head. I saw all my memories, especially the ones I'd rather forget," she heard Jonas say in a shaking voice.

"I had the same... experience," she said. "I don't remember much of it," she lied, hoping that they would soon drop the subject, as her memories of her mom dying, her dad leaving again and again, then finally Buffy falling ill on Winterhome flashed through her mind.

"Neither do I," Teal'c agreed. At least he looked like he meant it.

"How long were we out?" Jack asked.

She checked the ship's internal clock, "39 hours, ship time. Approximately 4 hours time outside the bubble."

"Can we get a message out to Thor?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, but they'll know," she said.

"I don't care, just send him a report about everything that's going on. If we fail, then at least the Asgard might be able to do something... And Sam, make sure he understands how royally screwed-up this is," Jack said.

She rose and walked towards the communications console.

"Why would they bring us back here?" Jonas asked.

"Maybe we can make them regret this," Teal'c suggested.

"Blow up the ship's hyperdrive... reactors and all," Jack said.

She swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. Buffy would never see her again. She'd die here.

"Carter, would that be big enough to cause a dent?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir, especially if we enhance the explosion with the on-board naquadah and naquadriah. Done right, we could crack this world open to its core," she remarked.

"Mom!" she heard a voice scream nearby. Her heart skipped. That voice. It was Buffy's voice. Was she still caught in the dream made by the Replicators? Buffy couldn't be here. Still, they had all heard it. Jack and Teal'c ran in front.

They headed down the corridor to the Captain's office. Buffy stood there, looking dirty, tired and with streaks on her sooty face where her tears were falling. "My mom... she died and I... I found her... And I couldn't grieve. There wasn't time. No one would let me. They all took and took and took. I was an empty shell. I didn't want to live. Why must I live?" Buffy said between sobs. Sam grabbed her daughter and just held her.

Sam felt the warmth and regular heartbeat of her daughter against her chest. "Oh, Buffy, I am here... Shhh, it'll be alright," she whispered.

She held Buffy and turned towards Jack, Teal'c and Jonas. "What's she doing here?" Jack asked.

"I have no idea. I thought Thor got everyone off this ship but us," she replied.

"I know, I heard him. Man, this is not Thor's day for doing things right. Okay, so no blowing up the ship. We need an alternate plan, people," Jack said.

"Major Carter should attempt to escape the time-field with Buffy in one of the X-302s, while we destroy this place," Teal'c suggested.

Jack looked up at Teal'c, then over to her. "It would give them a chance at least," Jack suggested.

"Sir, it wouldn't work. If you took the X-302s up to the Prometheus earlier, then the rocket boosters' fuel will have been used up, and we'll be unable to reach escape velocity -- never mind the speed to break orbit, or reach a distance where we could even radio the Asgard," she said.

"One of them is different," Buffy's voice said, albeit still muffled by Sam's clothes.

"What, honey?" she asked.

"One of the Replicators is different. He wasn't in on the entire mind-meld thing - which really hurts, by the way. He just watched and seemed more curious than mean. I think he is their weak point. He might be turnable. Not by me, though," Buffy explained.

"Why not by you?" Jonas asked.

"Uhm, I kind of used him as a punching bag" Buffy admitted.

"It's an idea. Okay, Sam, you're the most charming after the little one; you work on it, after rigging this ship to blow if we don't input some sort of code every 48 hours or so. I'll go send Thor a piece of my mind. Jonas, Teal'c, make sure they haven't installed some of their little buddies aboard. I don't want this ship swarmed if we get away," Jack ordered.

Everyone nodded and they split up. She didn't leave immediately, though. "Honey, you wanna come with me?" she asked.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, still looking haunted by whatever memories the Replicators had forced her daughter to see.

"How come you didn't come up to the bridge earlier?" she asked.

"I kind of stowed away," Buffy admitted.

"What!" she nearly yelled, feeling a bit of anger rising at the thought of her daughter doing an absolutely unthinking thing like that.

"Well I had a dream, a vision, while I was hiding from the hijackers. You would've died if I hadn't come. In my dreams I could hide in a sort of storage room in the engineering section," Buffy explained.

She thought about where that could be and reasoned that the Asgard probably hadn't detected Buffy due to the combination of shielding, armor, and naquadriah in that room.

"So, are you angry?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, but I'll save it all up until we get home. And I swear, you're so grounded for the next year," she said, and added in her mind that she'd never again allow Buffy to get near any of the SGC operations -- at least until Buffy was legally adult.

"So, what now?" Buffy asked.

"We rig this ship to blow, and then I have to find some way to convince a sentient robot that I think he should betray his own kind and let us freeze them in time," she said.

"I don't know. I got the feeling he thinks his people were being too cruel -- at least if their facial expressions mean anything," Buffy explained.

"They might not," she remarked.

"True," Buffy agreed as they entered the engineering area.

------------------

"Colonel, I think a sacrifice might be useless," Jonas called out to him. He was heading for a bite to eat after he had sent the message off to Thor.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"If explosives and weapons could have won this conflict, wouldn't the Asgard have won this conflict ages ago?" Jonas suggested.

He figured out what Jonas wanted to do instead. At least Daniel had gotten a replacement that filled his shoes, if only partly. "Are you sure you want to talk to the robot people? I am pretty sure that diplomacy isn't on their agenda," he replied.

"Are you sure?" Jonas asked.

"Yes," he answered, and kept walking trying to convince himself that even Daniel wouldn't have fielded a suggestion like that after being violated like they had all just been.

"Maybe we can reason with them. If we blow this ship, we won't have that option," Jonas argued.

"If we blow up this ship, I won't care," he replied, continuing towards the engineering room. He wanted to check on Carter.

------------------

In deep space Thor sat in the control room of his starship, worrying. First, there had been the sensor reports on the time-field running faster than before. Then it was the strange sensor ghost of a life-sign his crew had discovered on the sensor log of the humans' ship. And now he could only read the message from his friends and allies, instead of doing something to help. He wanted to be there and stop his people's enemy himself, instead of inflicting their mistake on people he admired.

Tjalfe, one of the captains in the Asgard fleet, walked up to stand beside his control chair. "Yes, my friend?" he asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, sir. You know that we cannot go in and help them at the moment. We would only attract the Replicators ship in orbit and maybe worsen everything," Tjalfe reported.

"Is that what you came over to my ship to say?" he asked, knowing his subordinates well enough to know that they wouldn't come to him with only such a trifle.

"My ship has finished the close analysis of the sensor logs from your trip with the humans. The low-level scans your ship ran on arrival missed a life-sign. It was obscured by heavy shielding and surrounding radiation. It was a human female, approximately 10 to 12 years of age, and in good shape and health," his friend explained. Tjalfe had been a scientist long before he had become a warrior, and Thor still often asked for his help when he suspected his computer to have made mistakes.

Thor put a hand against his head with a groan. It seemed he had failed to remove Major Carter's adoptive daughter from the ship, even though she had been mentioned. He had been in a rush and had let the ship automatics handle everything. It had been a mistake, and one he didn't plan on repeating. "Alright, we might not be able to go there yet, but make your ship ready. If the field should reverse as planned, I want us to start collapsing the sun immediately after. No waiting or debating. I will prepare an intercept course for the most likely path the humans might take on leaving. I want both of us and our ships to be there to protect them from any dangers or reprisals," he said.

"I will make sure everything is ready on my end," Tjalfe said and padded off.

------------------

First looked up as Second approached. "We've decoded their message. We were right, they are talking to our enemy. The Asgard sent them," Second explained.

"Good, have the ship place the weapon we designed into orbit. If they come, it will give them a taste of their own medicine," he ordered.

"What about the humans?" Second asked.

"Fifth is getting them now. I suggested a dinner, then a repeat of our earlier explorations should be on the menu. This time, we should insist that Fifth should participate. It is time he grew up a bit," he said.

"I will make sure the weapon is deployed and waiting," Second said and moved away.

------------------

"Buffy, would you type in the start-up commands over on the console?" her mom called out. A part of her mind immediately wanted to complain that she didn't know how, but it felt like the protest came from her fragmented memory, because her mom had just given her the basic rundown of the commands a few minutes ago. Buffy typed them in.

"Done," she called out. She read the text that scrolled down the screen. "Mom, it says here that everything is ready... And alert #1169 has been triggered. What is that?" Buffy asked.

"1169... That is something I just set up. It means someone opened an airlock from the outside. We have company," her mom explained.

"That would be me. I hope I am not intruding," the voice of the marginally kinder Replicator she had beat up on said. She turned and saw him standing in the doorway, looking a bit shy.

Her mom gave her a look Buffy couldn't interpret and said, "Welcome aboard. I am Major Samantha Carter."

"I am Fifth," he replied.

"Well, hi, " her mom said.

"I wanted to see if you had all recovered. I was afraid you had suffered permanent damage during your ordeal. I carried you here after. I hoped you'd be more comfortable here," Fifth explained.

"Thanks," Buffy muttered. She didn't really care. That guy had looked on passively as they were tortured. He was a long way away from scoring any brownie points with her.

Jack and Jonas entered the room. "What's going on?" Jack asked.

"Everything is fine, Sir. We're just chatting. Fifth carried us back here to make us more comfortable," her mom explained.

"Thanks," Jonas said, giving the Replicator his friendly smile.

"It was not difficult," Fifth replied, looking a bit confused by their thanks. Maybe her mom and Jonas had the right idea. Maybe they could befriend this guy. He seemed all innocent, and he had played dead earlier, maybe to help her.

"I came to extend an invitation to dinner from First," Fifth explained. Somehow the image of her torturer appeared in Buffy's mind. She was sure that would turn out to be First.

"No, thanks," Jack replied.

"Exploding your vessel would only serve to feed energy into the replicator blocks on the surface of the planet. Your food stores have already been taken to the Temple," Fifth said.

Jack looked defeated for a moment, then said, "When are we expected?"

"When you become hungry?" Fifth suggested and left the room.

"That one is definitely different," Jonas said. She rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything.

"No kidding, he comes off as almost human," her mom replied.

"But he isn't," Jack said, maybe a bit too harshly. It reminded Buffy of the situation with the Tok'ra. Jack seemed to go to emotional extremes at times, especially in his dislikes.

"So what do we do now?" Jonas said.

"The ship will fly, but I don't know if they'll even let us break orbit. Sir, if this is the next evolution of the Replicators, we should find out everything we can and report it back to the Asgard. We may not be able to do much now, but maybe they can," her mom suggested.

"Anyone hungry?" Jack asked.

------------------

They walked gingerly in a group down to the splendidly decked table that had been built with more of the blocks her mom had told her earlier were the building blocks of the spider-like robots. She was sure someone had played with too many Legos before making these things.

"Colonel O'Neill. Major Carter. Teal'c. Jonas. Buffy. Welcome," her torturer said.

"You'll forgive us if we don't shake hands this time," Jack said. Buffy wanted to nod vigorously but her pride prevented her from showing any weakness. She definitely didn't want any of their hands near her body or head.

"Please sit and replenish yourselves. You Organic life-forms store energy so inefficiently that I am sure you need more for your stores already," the guy said. 'First' she decided to name him, after all he seemed to be the first to react all the time.

They sat and ate. Jonas looked up, "We still have some questions that we never got the chance to ask the last time," he said.

"When our Replicator brethren discovered the android Reese, they realized she was their creator. They studied her design and form. The aspects of her technology superior to their own were incorporated into my design," First explained.

"Our brethren are composed of ungainly blocks," another of the Replicators said.

"We are composed of millions of cell units – microscopic, in comparison -- that combine to create this form," a third Replicator continued.

"Like nanites, Sir," her mom added, trying to be helpful.

"I hate those things," Jack said. Buffy wondered why.

"Luckily for us, my creation took place in the last moment before the Asgard time device was to activate. There was a microscopic crack in the neutronium shell of the device. I was able to slip through and stop the machine. Now I have reconfigured it to suit our purpose," First explained.

"Which is?" Jonas wheedled.

"To increase our number. In a few short years we - thanks to the Asgard - will go forth as an army," First said.

"Yeah, we can't let you do that," Jack protested.

"You? You cannot stop us," the second one that had spoken earlier remarked haughtily.

"This is like you organics and your evolution. This is a process of natural selection. The strong survive," First said.

"Yeah, but there is nothing natural about you. I mean, you've seen into our minds. I am certain you can see the difference," Jonas argued. For a moment Buffy missed Daniel's intense argumentation. Jonas and Daniel really were very much alike, or maybe Jonas had become more like Daniel from his writings. She had to ask her mom, if they made it out, to let her read Daniel's journals.

"Of course. We are far superior. It is like with the animal protein you consume right now. If you could see into its mind, you would still not hesitate to eat it," First argued.

"But you've recreated yourselves in our image," her mom commented.

"No, in the image of Reese," a Replicator that had been silent until now said.

"But there was a flaw in her programming. If you're serious about this evolution thing, why haven't you corrected it?" Her mom said.

"It was discovered during my creation and corrected. Of course, we didn't try to expunge it until the creation of Fifth. However, we have discontinued that practice as he has proven too... weak. Now eat," First said.

"Why?" Jack said.

"To regain your strength, so that we may begin again," First said. Buffy felt her muscles tense. She would fight again. She wouldn't let them take her back to her past again. It was so lonely there; yet, when she had returned she had missed those people in the memories as if they had been family who had died.

"No, way," Jack said and got up.

One of those spider things erupted, it seemed, from a column. "If you resist, it will be more painful," First said, trying to sound kind and failing.

"Stop," Fifth said.

Finally, he showed some backbone, Buffy thought. "Why?" First asked -- not angry, just curious.

"You've learned everything you need to know," Fifth offered.

"Oh, no, we haven't, by far. Each of us has four minds left to explore. You haven't even tried it, yet. And, also, the next one will want to know, as well. No, it has been decided: we go on." First turned towards them and said, addressing Jack, "If you resist, we will cause you physical damage, enough to subdue you. It is your choice."

"No," Fifth said again.

"We insist. You haven't seen the chaos, the lack of order and discipline. You need to see it and recognize who you are and who we are. Visit their memories of the worlds we have yet to conquer. Do you understand?" First asked.

Fifth looked defeated. Apparently he didn't have much of a backbone, then. "Yes," Fifth said.

"I won't blame you, if you choose me," her mom said to the Replicator that was standing close to them both.

"Carter?" Jack asked, a bit surprised. Buffy tried not to reveal in her expression -- and in fact put entirely out of her mind -- what she suspected her mom was up to.

"It's alright, sir. Last time I didn't remember a thing," her mom said, but Buffy guessed from the undertones of her voice and the haunted look her mom had when she had talked with her in Engineering that it was a lie.

The Replicators moved in and Buffy decided to make good on her promise. She tried to move away, but the hands of her soon-to-be torturer shot out faster than even she could react and held her wrists. Soon after, she was seeing the world through a red haze as three voices told her what to do, while she fought some sort of cybernetic demon monster called Adam.

------------------

They woke up together. Buffy reasoned that they were still in the Temple, or cave, or whatever it was called. Her mom groaned and got up. Then Jack jumped up, saying, "Oh, that's just not right. Jonas and Teal'c?" Nearby Teal'c and Jonas rose, looking equally spooked.

Her mom had grabbed her in a hug that, even though it was welcome, didn't feel as secure as it would have done if it had occurred at home on Earth.

"Sir, there is a way out of this, but we're gonna have to trust," her mom said.

Teal'c interrupted her, "Major Carter." He pointed towards the lighted central area where the time dilation device was set in the floor. Fifth was working there.

"I have made the adjustments, Samantha," Fifth said to her mom.

"To what?" Jonas asked, looking confused, while Jack and Teal'c caught on and started to look around for their stuff and the exit. She guessed her mom had actually convinced the Replicator to come with them and betray the others.

"The time dilation device. I am coming with you," Fifth explained.

Jack looked at her mom, but thankfully he didn't say anything, keeping his displeasure down to an irritated look.

"The others are merging with our brethren at the moment, sharing what they have learned from you, but they will return soon. I have reconfigured the device and installed the timing mechanism. However, you must still enter your command code," Fifth said while looking at her mom. It seemed the thing was actually throwing love-lorn eyes at her mom. The thought was not pleasant, but she kept the 'ew!' on her lips from emerging.

"Go," Jack said, and smiled almost in a friendly manner at Fifth.

"Teal'c, Jonas, you take Buffy back to the ship. Don't fire up the engines, but get everything else ready," Jack said. She didn't protest or argue. The idea of getting back on the ship, at the very least, sounded great.

------------------

They got up onto the bridge. Jonas sat at one console, Teal'c at another. She decided to do them all a favor and undo the stuff her mom had prepared in the computer that would make the ship explode. There really wasn't much point in firing up the engines and ending up as a nuclear fireball. She was glad that the DNA changes had made her really good at remembering. She repeated all the commands her mom had told her about that would reset everything to the normal baseline, all the while seated comfortably in the Captain's chair.

"Fire up the engines!" Jack's voice came from Teal'c's radio.

"Understood, O'Neill," Teal'c said and looked at her. She looked at the screen that reported everything ready, at least from what little she knew about starship engines, which was just a bit more than she knew about cars, which again wasn't really a lot.

------------------

Fifth looked at the machine. It was almost time to run. First entered. "What have you done?" First asked.

"Nothing," he lied.

"Where are the humans?" First asked, not believing him. He would have to run sooner than expected.

"They've returned to their ship to rest," he lied again. It was actually easier than he had suspected.

"They're trying to escape," First said.

"No," he lied again.

"It wasn't a question, fool! Even as we speak they're launching their ship," First said with contempt.

He couldn't believe it. It was like his world shattered in his mind. All his beliefs. His trust in the organic woman. "But she promised," he said.

"It is not too late. I can read your mind. There is time enough to stop the machine," First said, looking triumphant.

"No," he said, not wanting to believe what First was saying.

------------------

"Fire the engines now, or we're staying forever," Jack yelled as he ran onto the bridge. Teal'c did so. With a jolt and then a slight feeling of acceleration, along with the faint roar of the engines, they got off the ground.

Jack stopped and cleared his throat. She looked up at him, then down at her chair. The Captain's Chair. "Oh," she said and jumped out of it. Jack sat down. No one spoke. Everyone was too busy doing their jobs. She backed away from the central area, to the back end of the bridge, and looked at the displays there. She hoped they were actually getting away.

------------------

"Thor, the field has reversed. My ship's long-range sensors can see the human vessel's energy signature. They are leaving our homeworld now," Tjalfe's hologram reported.

"Set a course towards them. I want to get them out of there as fast as possible," he said.

"That is, if they escape the time dilation field," Tjalfe said as their mighty ships flew as fast as possible towards their goal.

------------------

"They're escaping," First yelled. The device hummed into life. Fifth looked at it, hearing the roar of engines moving away in the distance, and knew he had been betrayed.

"But she promised," he said again.

"They've made a fool out of you, my son," First said.

He turned and looked. The timer was at 2 seconds. He jumped towards it.

"Revenge," First yelled, and sent some sort of signal.

There was a brilliant flash of light as he was almost at the device interface.

Time stood still.

------------------

As the Prometheus roared out of the atmosphere ahead of the spreading time dilation field, an object roughly the size of a Goa'uld transport ship started its engines. It had received its commands. The zero point module, a copy of Ancient technology recreated by the Replicators, was activated. It found its new target. The human ship that had tricked its makers. It flew towards it at its highest speed, while its weapon started to build its charge.

------------------

"Something is wrong," Carter said.

"What?" he asked, hoping that they hadn't been caught in the time field. Of course, if they had been, he'd never have known.

"The Prometheus' sensors aren't complete yet, but I think we just got a radar reflection from behind us," his second in command said.

"That Replicator ship that tracked us when we arrived?" he asked, a bit worried.

"No, smaller," Carter reported.

"O'Neill," Thor's image appeared on the floor close to him.

"Thor, we did it," he said.

"We know. O'Neill, you are being followed by a device which is giving off massive power readings. We think it is a Replicator weapon that has locked onto your ship. Try to increase your speed. We shall rendezvous with you within moments." Thor said and his image disappeared.

"We're at our best speed," Carter said.

On the viewscreen two Asgard ships appeared out of hyperspace. One of them moved past, firing their beam weapons off into space behind them. Thor appeared as a hologram next to them once more. "SG-1, I am engaging the Replicator device. It is highly dangerous. The other ship will transport you out of here... Oh, no, it is going to--" he heard Thor say, before he saw what looked like a wall of bluish energy rushing towards him, and then he was enveloped in white light.

He and Jonas stood in a room next to another Asgard. There was a window showing a bluish white flash. "Thor," the Asgard said, and tapped his control stone onto his console.

"Hey," he called out. The Asgard stopped and looked towards him.

"Ah, the famous Colonel O'Neill. I am Tjalfe," the Asgard presented himself.

"Where is the rest of my crew?" he asked.

The Asgard looked exactly as he expected a sad Asgard to look. "I am afraid my ship was only able to beam you and your friend away before the energy wave overtook your ship, as well as Thor's. I believe our friends are dead, destroyed by the Replicator weapon," the Asgard explained.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to stay focused even though his guts felt like they were on fire with anger and a wave of sorrow was threatening to drown his capacity for rational thought.

"I will show you," the Asgard said and activated some sort of playback. An image of the Prometheus and Thor's ship appeared. Thor flew past them and fired at something behind them, clearly hitting it. There was a massive blue explosion that seemed to completely consume the two ships, leaving nothing behind.

"Crap," he said and felt almost faint. They were all dead. Their best ally among the Asgard. His best friend. His... Carter and Buffy. He could see their smiling faces in his mind and, unbidden, the Christmas last year came to mind. It had felt like having a family again. Back then, he had moped; now, he was angry at himself for having missed so much of the happy times. He turned and stared into the wall trying hard to dispel the thoughts in his mind, trying to force himself to keep things together until he was back home and alone. The images of Teal'c, Carter and Buffy kept haunting his mind.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13:**

"Colonel... Uh, Tjalfe... I think you should look at this," Jonas, who had been standing at the window looking out in silence, said. Jack turned and looked. It was Thor's ship with the Prometheus flying close behind it. They had just dropped out of hyperspace and now flew calmly towards them like nothing had happened.

A hologram of Thor appeared and he spoke for a while in the language of the Asgard that no one -- except maybe Daniel -- had any idea about. Tjalfe seemed surprised and happy to talk to Thor. They apparently had tight friendships amongst the Asgard, too. Tjalfe turned and looked at him. "Colonel, I will connect you to your second-in-command. I believe you should prepare yourself for a surprise," Tjalfe suggested.

An image of Sam appeared. Jack wasn't sure if it was something about the uniform, her face, or something else, but there was something different about her. "Sir, I am glad to see your face again. I am happy to report the Prometheus is safe and ready to be returned to your command as soon as you beam over," she said. He swore he could hear someone snicker in the background, but he couldn't see anything except what looked like the bridge of the Prometheus.

"Right, Jonas and I are on our way," he said and looked towards Jonas, then at the Asgard. It felt like a weight on his shoulders had just been lifted off. "It was a nice visit and thanks for the save. I hope we'll meet again one day," he said.

"Likewise, Colonel. Thor says you have quite the wit, for a human, and I hope to experience it myself one day," the Asgard said, before they were again enveloped in white light and reappeared on the bridge of the Prometheus.

------------------

The bridge of the Prometheus looked different than it should have. For one thing, everything looked like it _worked_. But beyond that, there were controls where there hadn't been before, consoles had moved, and many of the displays and readouts had different graphics than they used to.

He spotted what was different about Carter right away. Her uniform had changed, looking more like the blue working uniform of the SGC, and it was not the green combat uniform she had worn when he had last seen her. Her hair looked a bit longer, and a few of the wrinkles around her eyes were slightly deeper than before. He wondered if time had passed somehow for his friends because of the explosion.

Teal'c was sitting in another new, blue uniform with a teenager of maybe 15 or 16. Her long blond hair reached all the way down the back of her uniform. She was looking at him with a goofy smile, as if expecting something. "Carter, what's going on here?" he said.

"Damn," the girl said, and Teal'c handed her something. "Jack, couldn't you have cursed? Honestly, now I have console duty on this bucket of bolts all the way back to Earth," she said and walked over to sit at the second-in-command console.

"Your own fault for betting," Sam said as the teen passed her. The girl grinned. It couldn't be who he suspected it was.

"Carter?" he asked again, noticing the Major just smiling for a moment before saying. "Sir, I know I have a lot to explain. When we were hit by that Replicator weapon, we weren't destroyed. We were moved," she said.

"Where? And where is Buffy?" he asked, looking around.

"Present," the girl said and lifted a hand as if she was answering roll call.

"What?" he asked, completely confused for a moment.

"Sir, we weren't moved in space, but in _time_. Thor figured it out afterwards. When he hit the weapon -- which was designed to shred even Asgard ships into bits smeared across time and space -- it created a massive time distortion. It sent us back through time. We ended up right here, four years ago," Sam explained.

Jack wanted to say 'what?' again, but he knew that what Sam was describing wasn't impossible, especially given all the other bizarre things he had seen and done over the last few years such as being taken over by alien consciousnesses. He stepped through a wormhole on a daily basis. He had time-travelled before, totally by accident. Who was he to argue?

"So, couldn't Thor have returned you immediately?" he asked, looking at Buffy and guessing that this group had been together in space for the last four years without him. It left him feeling strangely envious.

"No, sir, the Asgard know about time travel using the gate system, through their knowledge of Ancient technology, but they long ago decided to confine their manipulations of time to limited spatial fields and to not develop actual time travel devices. They believe the Ancients did a lot of research into this, but the Asgard decided against researching it. They do have rules for situations dealing with it, though. Which is why we're here now," Sam said.

Sam paused as if remembering something. She turned back towards him and saluted, before saying very formally, "Colonel O'Neill, I hereby return command of this vessel, dubbed the _Prometheus, _to your command."

"Take it, Jack; we're even returning it in a better state than we got it in," Buffy said with a smile. While Sam looked largely unchanged and Teal'c looked like the years had completely ignored him, Buffy had grown up a lot. She had turned into a stunner who would make any teenage boy stutter and drool with a single look. There was also something almost unapproachable about her, as though she were nobility out of the old fairy tales.

"What does she mean?" Jonas asked, breaking his silence.

"How about we first ask Thor to start towing us, before we sit down in the mess hall and talk over a pleasant dinner?" Sam suggested.

"Sure... wait, who's cooking?" Jack asked.

The tiny group looked at each other, then back at him. Buffy and Sam said almost in sync, "Anyone but Teal'c." The huge man just nodded his agreement.

"I guess it's my turn. Buffy, you have the bridge. Oh sorry, sir, I forgot. Command is habit-forming, I guess," Sam said.

"No, no, it's fine. If you trust Buffy to do it, then she should. I wouldn't want her to default on her bet. But shouldn't someone talk to Thor?" he said.

Buffy nodded, tapped a few buttons, and began talking in the really strange language of the Asgard for a short while. Thor's voice replied in the same language. "Done," the teen said while turning to him.

He nodded, more than a bit stunned, and followed the others off the bridge.

They were halfway down the corridor before he asked, "Did she just speak another language?"

"Yes, sir. We didn't have a lot of distractions, so Teal'c and Thor decided to teach a bit of what they knew to me and Buffy. Well, mostly Buffy. I was busy with the ship. I can speak pretty fluent Goa'uld now, and I can read Asgard. Buffy is quite a bit better with the Asgard language, and since Teal'c wouldn't speak anything but Goa'uld to Buffy for two years, she speaks and reads both languages fluently. The kid who sucks at languages actually mastered two." Sam turned her head towards the big Jaffa, "Teal'c, she told me she was actually a bit peeved that when she got home she'd be able to speak two entirely foreign languages, but both are classified, and so she'll keep scoring 'crap grades' in stuff like French and Spanish, which she has never had the chance to use," Sam said.

Jack noticed Sam was talking more and talking faster than she used to. That was probably the effect of being with a small, closed circle of people for so long. "Indeed, she indicated the same to me," Teal'c replied to Sam's comment. It seemed the big guy hadn't changed during their long stay away.

"Oh, damn," Jack said, realizing the amount of trouble and paperwork their new situation would bring about.

"Sir?" Sam asked.

"You couldn't have, oh, I don't know, gotten thrown into another galaxy or something? All that paper shuffling I'll have to do! Evaluations of the _Prometheus_, the mileage, the wear and tear. The Joint Chiefs will have my ass for giving their new toy back to them very used. Oh, and then there's Buffy suddenly jumping four years in physical age. You'll have to put in for back pay and vacation time. This is not making me happy, Carter," Jack explained.

Sam smiled pleasantly, as if this came as no surprise to her. "At least Buffy wasn't lying, sir. We're returning a better ship than they would've had, even if it had been completely finished before it ever got off the ground. With the time I had and a bit of help from Thor, let's just say that this bird now has features we intended for the battle cruiser production line that was only being talked about before we left Earth. And even better, I come bearing gifts, sir," Sam explained.

They reached the mess hall and he settled in with Teal'c and Jonas. Outside the glow of hyperspace told him that Thor was towing them back to Earth. Sam looked very at-home in the kitchen. In a few hours, he'd be home on Earth, unless Thor wasn't hurrying. Then, it might be an hour or so, maybe more.

A few minutes later Sam reappeared, pushing a trolley with food. She dished it out and pressed a small, black square device. "Buffy, food's ready; you can come down in about ten minutes, when Jonas is done eating, he'll replace you," Sam said into it.

"Got it," Buffy answered. It seemed the device was a tiny radio.

Jack waited until Sam sat down, and then asked, "So what the hell really happened?"

------------------

_Four years earlier for some people._

Sam saw the bluish energy wall hammering through the room. There was a white flash all around her, just as the blue energy enveloped her. It felt as though she had just been zatted. She felt her limbs weaken. Sam fell to the floor. She had spots in front of her eyes and felt like something had just punched her in the gut.

She lay on the floor trying to regain her bearings. "Mom," she heard Buffy yell out. She felt her daughter's warm hands on her shoulders. Her daughter was okay, but then she usually didn't have to worry about Buffy.

"I'm just stunned. It feels a bit like I was just shot with a zat," she said.

"I agree," the voice of Teal'c added from somewhere in the room.

"You okay, Buffy?" she asked.

"I'm fine. It hurt, but I'm feeling okay," Buffy replied.

There was a noise that she could only associate with the Asgard beaming technology. "Ah, it seems Colonel O'Neill and Jonas Quinn made it off in time," Thor said.

She rolled to sit up and saw the gray-skinned alien approach. Thor seemed to be deep in thought about something... at least, she hoped that was what his expression and blinking meant.

"I have brought bad news," Thor said. She noted that they were apparently in hyperspace, if the view outside was any indication.

In the left corner of her eye she could see Teal'c rise from the floor.

"The device I destroyed moments ago was a Replicator-made weapon, an adaptation of the Asgard Time Dilation device combined with some other technology that was, I suspect, Ancient in origin, according to its energy signature. Its destruction prevented it from shattering our component particles across subspace, but unfortunately the explosion had an unintended side-effect," Thor explained.

Sam rose and put her arm around Buffy's shoulders, holding her against her side. She was unsure about what Thor was going to say next, but when an Asgard said it had bad news there was always reason to worry.

"After the explosion I learned that my ship and yours had been unharmed but displaced in time. According to my ship's analysis of the star positions relative to our position, we are now four years earlier than our previous time," Thor said.

"So what? You'll just take us back to our time now," Buffy remarked.

"No. Not only do the Asgard not have reliable time-travel technology, even using the Stargate wormholes, but we have also long ago made rules against studying it. Any travel in time or manipulation of the time-line is strictly forbidden. Our protocols dictate that, in the case of accidental travel to the past, we have to isolate ourselves, unless we can immediately make our way back to our own time. I am currently moving us to an isolation zone, in what you call the Large Magellanic Cloud. We're going to a planet called Vindgloed. It is a very pleasant planet with a base in a tropical climate, set up as a place for us to dock and live for the duration of our quarantine," Thor explained.

"Live? What...? No, we can't do that. I have exams in a few months. I was supposed to graduate high school," Buffy said.

"I am sorry," Thor admitted.

Sam thought about it. Thor was right. If they didn't have a clear way home, they had to stay isolated, to avoid causing any paradoxes. "Alright, if we really don't have a safe way home, we have to make the best of this. First of all, we need realize that for the next few years we are all we've got, and therefore we must all try our very best to get along at all times. Also, we will become starved for entertainment, so I think we should consider how we can best distract ourselves. We should have several projects going on at all times, and we all need to see each other and talk to each other as much as possible... Thor, resources will be a problem. I am sorry to say, but Asgard food isn't really tasty for humans," she said and looked at the alien.

"That will not be a problem. I will have my crewmen analyze what is left of your food reserves and encode it into our transporters. That way, we will have all the resources you'd need. I also agree with your assessment of the need for activities. I believe Asgard holographic teaching projections could be of great use," Thor suggested.

"That sounds like a capital plan," she said looking down at Buffy, who still wasn't looking happy.

"I will have to get back to my ship. Most of my crewmen are going to enter stasis for the period, and I want to oversee the process. I would offer the option to you as well; however, our technicians believe our pods are not set up for human physiology, and it could do you harm to use them. I will contact you again when we arrive," Thor said and disappeared in the white glow of the teleporter.

Teal'c gravely looked at Buffy, then at her. "I believe I should inspect the ship for further damage due to the explosion," he said and left.

For a while, she puttered around on the bridge, reading the sensors and looking at the computer-generated reports on the ship's condition.

"Mom," Buffy said.

"Yeah," she replied, recognizing the unrest that lay behind the tones of her daughter's voice.

"I'm afraid," Buffy admitted.

She turned and looked at her long-haired daughter, who was studying her with those beautiful eyes -- eyes that had captured her heart, even back at Winterhome years ago. "What are you afraid of?" she asked.

Buffy looked confused for a moment, then said, "It's difficult to explain. I guess I'm afraid of becoming weird, of not being able to relate to people after this. I am a superhuman girl, mom. I have, by accident, become much smarter than I was before I became your daughter. I know so many things I can't talk to anyone about. And now I am going to live in space for years. How am I going to explain anything to Anna when I get back? What about Cassie and everyone? Sometimes I just wish I was normal."

"Buffy, shhh, shhh," she took her daughter into an embrace. "Listen to me, if you learn nothing else for the next few years, then at least learn this from me, now. I know there will be times when you hate me and when you don't listen to me. But what you're afraid of is actually entirely normal. Everyone -- me, Jack, and Cassie -- we've all been through this. You feel like either you're not special enough, or else you're too different from everyone. That no one can understand you. But that's not true. People can understand you if you trust them and they're good enough friends. What you're so afraid will alienate them, will actually turn out not to matter to them at all. People call what you're feeling right now 'teen angst'. It won't go away immediately, but it will pass over time. I bet in your memories you might even find that your previous self dealt with it, too, and she probably managed to survive it with good friends at her side, no matter that she was also superhuman. I will always be here. Janet and Cassie will be there when we get home. And I promise that, when we get home, I will arrange it so that Anna gets permission to be told enough for you two to remain friends." She explained as well as she could and hoped that this first sign of teenager issues in her daughter was handled, for the moment.

Buffy looked thoughtful and so she continued working for a while, leaving her daughter to her deep thoughts. Sam found that they were having a few power leakages in the hangar area -- probably from some damaged electrics -- and decided to start a list of things that needed to be fixed on the ship. In the end, she decided to make finishing the _Prometheus_ her first project.

"Mom," Buffy said. Sam looked up again.

"You're right, you know. I do remember enough to know that being different isn't something I should fear. I'm never going to be one of the herd, so I might as well accept my differences and that this is how I should be and live," Buffy said and watched her, probably to see how she reacted.

"Good, honey, it sounds like your memories were really helpful there. Buffy, we should think about your future, though. With your school thousands of parsecs and four years in the future I guess we should consider a work-education program for you. I'm afraid I can only teach you college- and Ph.D.-level math and physics, as well as military skills. Teal'c can teach Jaffa warfare, martial arts, and Goa'uld language, culture and use of their technology. I have no idea if Thor and the Asgard would be willing to teach you anything. Do you think you could put up with that?" she asked.

Buffy thought for a few moments, then said, "I have no idea, but I promise I won't be difficult. Whatever I can do to pass the time that makes sense is fine by me."

"Okay," she said, leaving her daughter to think about her proposal, because it looked like Buffy had to adjust to that thought before she'd accept it.

A few hours later the _Prometheus_ emerged from hyperspace, still being towed by Thor's ship as it slid into orbit over Vindgloed, the planet Thor planned to use as their hideout for the next four years. Sam looked over the scans of the planet. It was a beautiful, watery planet with large but shallow oceans, dotted with millions of islands.

Thor appeared as a hologram on the bridge in front of her. "Major Carter, my sensors tell me that a powered landing -- while possible for your ship -- might be a little precarious and would also cause disruptions to the atmosphere that could stress the wildlife needlessly. Would you mind if the Beliskner uses its tractor beams to guide you down safely?" He asked.

"No, not at all," she said.

"Good," Thor said and disappeared again.

They descended towards the planet, aiming for a large island near the planet's equator. Sam busied herself with making sure the sensors took all the scans and pictures they could. In a way it was an excellent trial run of the _Prometheus_' sensor array and software.

"Nice, I should have brought a bikini. I'll have to remember that for my next kidnapping," Buffy mumbled. Sam wondered why Buffy was still a bit glum. It was as if her daughter was stuck with some sort of memory that haunted her. But given all that had happened to them within the last 48 hours she was sure her daughter needed someone to talk to. She guessed she would miss not having Karen, Buffy's therapist, nearby.

"Well, at least you'll get your tan back," she teased. Buffy had remarked several times over the years that she used to live in California and that Colorado was way too chilly for her. Sam had long ago decided to just remind Buffy, when she said something like that, that things could be worse. She could get deployed to somewhere less comfortable, like Alaska or Nevada to oversee one of the many projects to develop the technologies found off-world.

"Oh, yeah, like you're gonna let me while away the days by working on a solid case of skin cancer for four years," Buffy said a bit more cynically than she'd have expected from her.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked.

Buffy blinked and then looked remorseful as she said, "I'm sorry. I think I'm channeling my dark side, or something. I just want things to be semi-normal for a while."

"Naturally. I promise I will try to make everything as normal as I can," she vowed. She paused and looked at Buffy. Then they both laughed as they came in for a gentle landing over the very high-tech Asgard base that they were going to be calling home for the next four years.

"Yup, but I guess what you mean is normal _for us_," Buffy said, "I don't mind the ship, aliens, or even that I'm different. It's more the entire fighting, dying and mortal danger thing that I would like to have completely pass me by for a while."

"Deal," she agreed as Teal'c came back onto the bridge to witness the ships' landing.

------------------

Jack studied his second-in-command. "Did you really spend four years at an Asgard base with only each other and Thor as company?" he asked.

"Mostly. There were two other Asgard, Roeskva and Vidar, but they were kind of shy and didn't hang out with us much," Buffy, who had joined them a few minutes into Sam's story, said.

"So, I guess you missed Earth a lot," he said.

"Oh, yeah. Well, maybe not all the time. I did have several times that were a lot of fun, like when Teal'c taught me all about Mastaba and Jaffa fighting methods in general. Or when Mom taught me to fly the X-305s and sky-dive. I love sky-diving . . . well, and regular diving, but that is another story," Buffy said.

------------------

_Six months earlier for some people._

"Are you sure it's alright? I'm not even old enough to drive?" Buffy asked again. She really wanted to take the new ship up. She had studied hard for months to do this. She had learned to sky-dive, and had also learned a ton of military stuff, like radio discipline. She had even learned enough about the technology of the ship's engines, so that she understood the basic principles.

For a moment she mused that it was strange to remember a different self at about her current age who wouldn't have recognized a differential equation as much more than chicken scratching, but then be able to do them now.

"I am sure," her mom replied from the navigator seat behind her.

"Alright, just checking," she said, and then flicked on the different switches and turned the knobs that they needed to power up the engines, inertial dampeners and shields. As she ran through the pre-flight check-list she felt butterflies in her stomach. She had tried taking off before, but so far all her training had been in a holographic simulation over on the Beliskner. It was actually her first time in the regular X-305, as her mom called it.

Finally she called out the last check on the list and could say, "_Prometheus_. This is X-305 ready for take-off. Over."

"You are clear to launch," Thor's voice came over the radio.

Buffy grinned, put her foot on the afterburner switch and sent them nearly over the clouds, while yelling like a mad woman, and then laughing as she enjoyed the feeling of the G-forces trying to force her hard into her seat. G-forces she could easily resist.

"Buffy! Behave!" her mom ordered, sounding a bit disturbed.

"Sorry, I was just enjoying it. This is so cool. I am totally gonna be a pilot as well. This is better than sky-diving," she said. She put the ship into a massive nosedive enjoying the rush for a moment stabilizing the plane before her mom told her to stop fooling around.

------------------

"Whoa, you know how to fly? And don't you mean an X-302?" Jack remarked.

"Well, sir, when we'd finished the Prometheus -- after a year's work and a lot of help from Thor and the Asgard beaming technology -- I got down to learning everything I could from Thor. He limited himself, as agreed, to helping me understand technologies that we had already recovered from the Goa'uld. Well, that's not entirely true. I think he wanted to thank us for our help, and maybe he felt guilty about stranding us for four years, so he did give us two additional upgrades to our technology: an Asgard hyperdrive that could take us from Earth to their galaxy in maybe five weeks with our current energy output, and shields like they have on their O'Neill-class ships, to help us against Anubis. However, that didn't really do much for us offensively. About three years in, I finally cracked several of our design problems. I figured out how the Deathglider and Al'Kesh propulsion systems work. And I got the energy weapons to work, as well. So, we now know how the staff weapons are powered and the physics behind them. I might, with a bit of research, be able to help us reproduce the zat's, but I do have their physics down. I wanted to retrofit the X-302 with beam guns, but then Buffy gave me an idea," Sam explained.

"Ray guns? Cool!" he felt was the only thing he could say. The Pentagon was practically drooling at the idea of the X-302s already, but with both the X-302 and the X-303 they were worried about the relative weakness of their weapons, which were limited to naquadah-enhanced missiles and nukes at the moment. There had been a lot of promise in the rail guns the Research department were working on.

"Well, Buffy happened to mention two things. We still had the hyperspace window generators on the X-302s, but they weren't really functional, and she also asked me, when I was troubled about power requirements for the new weapons, why the naquadah generators weren't enough to power smaller guns, like on a fighter. I must admit, I almost smacked myself on the head when I thought about that. As a result, I designed a new craft. I kept the airframe, but I removed the entire engine section and its innards. I replaced those parts with ten naquadah generators and constructed a new engine that worked like a Deathglider's, with some modifications from what I've learned about Asgard sub-light engines, making our ship much faster in a straight line than a Glider and almost as maneuverable. Then I added two sets of guns: one set replacing the regular guns. The other was placed on the wingtips. They're less powerful than a glider's but with smaller more precise bolts and a much higher rate of fire. Finally, I dropped the hyperdrive but used the power couplings and the excess power to give us a low-powered but still strong shield. I am kind of proud to say we've rebuilt the one X-302 we had into my X-305 design, and it works," Sam explained.

"Carter, the entire research and development department will throw you a party, the Joint Chiefs will shower you in medals, and I believe our pilots in the near future should greet you with a kiss. A fighter with beam weapons, better engines and a shield is a massive achievement," Jack said.

"I had a lot of help from Thor. He helped me with all my calculations. He helped me look in the right direction hundreds of times for every theory I had. That is not false modesty, either. The Asgard have really helped us on this," Sam explained.

"I knew they'd come through eventually. It's good to have allies you can trust," he said.

"Which reminds me. Mom, we so gotta call Granddad the second we get home," Buffy said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed, looking wistful.

"The old guy is going to have a stroke seeing you all grown up," Jack said, and for the first time really studied Buffy. She looked relaxed, and -- to his shock -- he once again realized she was no longer just cute or pretty. She was what young boys called 'hot'. That was weird, as all the thoughts about what that meant and could lead to flew through his mind. He had never had a daughter, and Charlie had never gotten old enough to... Anyway, the girl looked like she would only have to twirl her hair and throw a coy look over her shoulder to get the entire male teenage population of her high school to come panting after her. The idea of visiting Buffy's classes and giving all the male students a vicious look while carrying a rifle flew through his mind. Or maybe he'd just greet any potential boyfriend of Buffy's with Teal'c by his side and maybe a heavy pistol in hand. He was feeling protective, but he was unsure if it was just because the idea of her actually being sixteen hadn't sunk in yet.

"So, other than finishing this ship and making an entirely fighter all you did was marking time while you were there?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. I will turn in a complete report. But basically it was all work and study, broken up by beach visits and a few local adventures into sky-diving, scuba-diving, and improving relations with the Asgard, sir," Carter explained.

"I bet the General will look forward to that report," he said.

"I bet he won't be looking forward to signing over my back pay and my request for a vacation," Sam said.

"Vacation?" he asked, a bit surprised that Carter was considering a vacation, especially given that they were still in great danger from Anubis.

"I know I am needed, sir. But I think I need maybe a couple of weeks off duty, with no obligations, no cell phone, and room service on speed-dial," Sam said.

"Hear, hear," Buffy agreed.

"Haven't you had enough vacation, kiddo?" he asked.

"Hey, repairing and finishing your ship was actually hard work. I -- a mere civilian, by the way – have spent the last four years of my life, against my will, aboard a US Air Force spaceship. I demand that I be treated with respect, and maybe a nice amount of back allowance," Buffy said with a smile on her lips.

"I believe you are bending the truth, Buffy. Did you not hide aboard this ship when the Asgard arrived, so that you could join us on our mission against the Replicators? In fact, you are not here against your will," Teal'c said.

"Hey, no fair reminding him of that," Buffy said.

"You should not use your charm to make O'Neill overlook what was a flawed decision on your part, while you try to make personal gain from it. That is dishonorable," Teal'c said, sounding a bit like a teacher trying to make a point.

Buffy laughed, then said, "I wouldn't have. I just wanted to make sure Jack didn't forget that I am not one of his soldiers, even if I am wearing this shapeless sack Mom calls a uniform."

"You would indeed have tried to profit from this earning O'Neill pity and have him treat you with clothes and those shoes you covet, and so I had to warn him," Teal'c said.

"Fine. Ruin my finances, will you?" Buffy said, then got up, having finished her meal, "I have to go, anyway. I have console duty, and by now Jonas will be all lonesome up on the bridge. See ya all later."

"Bye," Jack said and watched the girl walk away, she was still smiling.

"She really doesn't like that uniform. She actually had the computer run a verbal countdown this month, so that she'd know how long it was until she could get back to Earth and be closer to some clothes shops and shoe stores," Sam said.

"I thought she liked the BDU I gave her," he said, before remembering that it was years ago for Buffy.

"She did. And really, she had nothing against her uniform, either. She considers it an honor that I gave her an SGC uniform, but she is not thrilled about wearing it full time, every day for years, with nothing nice to change into in between," Sam went on to say.

"How long until we get to Earth?" he asked.

"About one hour, sir," Sam said.

Carter turned to Teal'c and asked, "I forgot. Has Thor removed the holographic teaching room?"

"What's that?" he asked.

"Sir, It is an access point to the Asgard database on human culture, technology and well in truth everything they know. I believe it is a lot like the Library of the Ancients only containing what the Asgard know instead. Thor installed a holographic projector tied to an edited version of it for us to learn from. He used it to help me understand and visualize technology. And help Buffy learn Asgard," Sam explained.

------------------

_Two years earlier for Buffy._

"Thor, are you sure? I am not good with languages. I mean I am beginning to scrape by in Goa'uld but I am barely fluent in American. Why teach me Asgard?" Buffy asked. She studied the gray alien, who had become a steadfast if a bit remote friend to them especially now in their exile.

"Buffy, I believe it necessary to understand a people's language before you can really understand their language, culture or methods. Also even though my tests have lead me to believe, that while you like Colonel O'Neill represent a view of the genetic future of the human race you do not hold the key to our future, I still think that you like your friends and parent will become most important to the human struggle against the Goa'uld," Thor explained.

"I am just a kid. Sure, I am like airquote special, but deep down I am a girl like every other," she replied.

"Do you intend to aid humanity in its quest for space and safety from danger, no matter the cost? " Thor asked and looked intently at her.

She felt almost embarrassed that the kind but battle-hardened Asgard Supreme Commander knew her almost better than she did. Sometimes deep down she tried to picture herself living a normal life, but somehow the fantasies always died in the face of reality and her personality. She decided to answer truthfully, "I do. But don't tell my mom about the last bit. I don't want her to know how far..." She stopped and looked at Thor. He gave her an understanding nod.

"Good, now let's commence with the basic alphabet," Thor said and an bluish wall of transparent blue covered in runic letters surrounded them in a flash. She waited expectantly trying to remember how the one in front of her was vocalized.

------------------

He sighed as the Prometheus settled into its moorings, once again hidden in the sands of Nevada. Outside, Major Davis would probably be expecting them. The Major had no idea what he was in for.

The three time travellers had left Jonas and him to take the ship down with the help of the apparently upgraded computers of the _Prometheus_, which seemed capable of landing the big ship almost completely without them.

He headed for the main airlock and met up with Sam, Teal'c and Buffy, who were waiting with several bags and boxes, probably containing the personal belongings the last few years had produced.

Jack took a deep breath and headed out to meet the people whose mind he was about to collectively boggle.

------------------

Buffy studied her surroundings as she walked down the halls of the SGC. It all seemed to go so amazingly fast now. All around her the people were going about their business. She was loving the buzz of activity, but again, as when she had returned from Winterhome long ago, she was almost getting dizzy from the amount of sensory input she was receiving. A pair of cute airmen were taking her to the conference room, after she'd been cooling her heels in a room with a pair of interviewers for a couple of hours. Apparently the rule was that she had to be debriefed in full, which meant she had to rehash every little thing they had done ever since she stepped onto the Prometheus, four years ago from her point of view.

"Ah, Buffy, it's good to see you," General Hammond said, but she could see he was having a bit of trouble with the entire four-year thing.

She decided to make it seem more real to him and went for a hug. As always, the big sentimental man was all perplexed by affection. "It's good to be back here," she said and went over to sit at the table.

The general went back to talking to her mom and Teal'c, allowing her to look around. She had thought about the SGC and their mission a lot of the last year or so. She remembered a lot of her other past and how she had been a warrior of good, for the lack of a better word. In this universe, she was coming to realize that if she wanted to fight for Earth in this universe, she'd have to work for the SGC. That would be easiest if she joined the military.

Buffy had wondered for a long time now if that was how she should do it. She knew she sucked, almost literally, at following the orders of someone else, but since she had no way of becoming her own private SGC she needed to integrate into the chain of command. Besides, unlike the dangers she had fought in her fragmentary memory of the past, the issues she was dealing with here were bigger than what could be fixed by a single person. There was also all the shiny gadgets the SGC had access to. She had talked to her mom about her obsession with technology: it was most assuredly an effect of her mom's DNA. In the end, she knew she would have to join the SG program, and that meant either as a scientist or as a soldier. Still, while she was currently off-the-chart-smart, she didn't have the temperament to be much more than one of the Indiana-Jones-style scientists. So that meant the military, a chain of command, and a whole lot of other things like having to maybe follow orders she didn't agree with. That was her main problem currently: to decide if she could live with that thought, or not.

Buffy noticed that the conversation was finally moving away from the past and towards what they'd do now, and so she started to listen. "Sir, has someone come to some sort of decision on how we can get Buffy slipped back into school and normal life in general?" Jack asked.

"We have been working on a plan for that, but quite frankly the current version would require Buffy to live under an assumed name with Major Carter as a legal guardian," General Hammond explained.

"I don't want that. I didn't ask to be misplaced in time. Besides, I suck at secret identities. Why don't you just stick me in another school and fake my records to show me being older?" she suggested.

"We would be unable to provide the same educational setup as you had been enjoying, and it is still considered paramount that you do receive that education," General Hammond said.

"Well, Buffy doesn't need that much help anymore, anyway. She just needs to pass a few remaining courses; then she can graduate and start at a college. She could finish those classes by mail, and take the SAT at a test center or something. At least, if Teal'c and I haven't wasted our time these last years," Her mom responded.

"Teal'c -- what did he teach? American History?" Jack commented with a playful smile.

"More like philosophy. Honestly, Jack, I already knew enough to graduate High School when I left on the _Prometheus_. Teal'c and Mom have been keeping me on my toes, and well... Since I am part nerd on my Mom's side, I also kind of picked up big parts of a science education. But Teal'c taught me a lot of really practical stuff too," she explained, and remembered how it had been.

------------------

_Two years earlier for her._

Their Bashaak staffs impacted with a metallic clang repeatedly. Buffy wasn't trying to hit her teacher today. Mostly because he was still healing from their last offensive practice match. This time she had been told to purely defend herself until such a time as her teacher managed to actually hit her.

She danced out of reach as Teal'c swung a massive blow that hammered against the hangar deck, startling her mom who was tinkering with a part of the _Prometheus_, while occasionally looking up to watch them. Buffy jumped over Teal'c's staff.

Her jumps, moves and gyrations went on and on. For almost two years now she had trained like this every day. She was in better physical condition than ever before, actually showing muscle definition rather than just soft arms. As she parried a blow-- swinging her staff over her head so that its tip lay against her lower back to take the hammer blow by Teal'c -- Buffy mused that, for all her recollections of fighting and training from her other life, she had no memories in which she had actually shown as much discipline as she did at that moment. Her old self seemed inspired, graceful and powerful, but she had no memories of iron discipline. She was sure it couldn't be true, given her successes and survival in a life of constant battles, but rather it was proof that even now, years later, she still didn't remember completely -- especially not the emotions that should have been attached to the memories she had.

"Focus," Teal'c growled in Goa'uld. It had been nearly a year since the warrior had spoken English to her, and he pretended not to understand when she spoke anything other than Goa'uld. Still, it had worked. She had learned, albeit haltingly, the language just like so many other Jaffa things she had been taught. Things like the meditative techniques of Kel no'reem or how Jaffa social groups worked together. In the evenings Teal'c told her the history and legends of his people. She had found that learning another culture and way of thinking was incredibly fascinating.

"Sorry," she said, still parrying his every blow even, if she was sure she was practically dripping sweat from the cuffs of her sweatpants.

"Guys, dinner is in half an hour. Buffy, finish him," her mom called out.

She smiled, sidestepped a kick, parried Teal'c staff, and before he could pull back she launched into her attack. The part of her she recognized as the Slayer almost seemed to mentally purr at finally being allowed to strike back. She hit his staff aside, dashed forward, spun and kicked him in the shins. Before Teal'c could recover from suddenly being dropped to his knees, she clobbered him in the back with the staff, being careful to not hit hard enough to break bone. It had taken her a while to learn how to control her strength, and at times when her form was good it still surprised her. It seemed she had portioned it right this time. Teal'c flew forward onto his chest.

"The battle is over," Teal'c said and rolled over onto his back.

She offered him her hand and he grasped it, allowing her to pull him up.

"So, Master Teal'c, what do you think of my form?" she asked, struggling a bit with the Goa'uld word for 'form'. It was a language where most sentences could be interpreted two ways, and so she sometimes did a foot-in-mouth kind of sentence.

"It was fine. You have nearly reached mastery in all the martial arts I can teach you," Teal'c said, sounding pleased about that.

"Thanks... Damn, what are we gonna pass the time with afterwards?" she asked, thinking about the immediate future. Their exile would last a few more years.

"You still have much to learn about the art of warfare. I will soon move our lessons away from the tactical and towards strategy. I will teach you to plan a battle, then a war, and finally long campaigns as the Jaffa do them. Together with your mother we will then add the Tau'ri methods, as well," Teal'c said.

"Great, a well-rounded education. Geek lessons, fighting, and now warfare. I am so gonna scare the therapist the SGC sends me to when we get back," she replied.

------------------

"I guess we could arrange things like Major Carter suggested. I will try to get everything lined up so that you can take the necessary tests . . . after a proper period of preparation, of course," General Hammond agreed.

"'Proper period of preparation', try saying that five times fast with spit in your mouth," she commented before she could stop herself.

"Buffy!" her mom said, looking shocked.

Hammond just chuckled, and the conversation moved on to things like getting the inventions her mom had made out of the Prometheus and the X-305s and down onto paper, as well as her mom's succinct inquiry about getting paid for her time on Vindgloed and maybe some vacation time for them to go see the world. She remembered when they had decided it would be a good idea.

------------------

_Four months earlier for her._

"Buffy, what's the capacitance on it?" her mom asked. Buffy looked at the meter she had just attached to the circuit board of the X-305 avionics. She was completely baffled for a moment, not by the terms or the value of the meter, which she read out loud. No, she was baffled -- or rather, amazed – that somehow DNA, teaching and persistence by her mom and other instructors had actually allowed her to understand these technical terms. Her old self would never have understood it, but she hadn't needed to, either. Now she did need to. She believed that, along with a big help from the DNA changes and the impetus of necessity, she had found the way even she could learn difficult science things. She needed to do it, because if she didn't learn she wouldn't be good enough to be invited to join the SGC after college. She had considered bypassing college entirely but her mom had given her a mom-guilt-look, and so she had dropped that idea again.

There was another thing on her mind. Given all her gifts and knowledge, she was still afraid. Not of people and friends rejecting her, but of her rejecting them. She knew she was superior to most people. There was maybe one or two percent – if that – of the world's population with the same amount of smarts as her. Sure, her intelligence was mostly lodged in her ability to learn physical skills, but still she was off-the-chart smart. She was also stronger, faster, and had more endurance than a small team of athletes. Put that all together with the stuff she was privy to and she knew that, she was pretty darn far ahead of everyone. And she hated feeling that. She couldn't get herself to express it in words or emotions, but that inherent arrogance had settled into the deep recesses of her mind, together with the dark violence given off by the Slayer part of her personality. She didn't like the thought of coming off as a know-it-all or a bitch, but she had the feeling she might easily come off as both.

"Mom," she said.

Her mom looked over the edge of the cockpit, probably alarmed by her tone. "Yeah?" her mom remarked.

"I'm worried about some stuff... with the both of us," she continued.

"What stuff? You're putting me in the middle of your mental conversation, Buffy; please help me catch up," her mom, who had lightened up considerably over the last years, replied.

"Sorry. I was thinking. You and me, we're special people, and we're so busy all the time. It'll even get worse when we get home. I think... Last week I realized I hadn't thought about normal life for months. I hadn't thought about music or school or Cassie or Anna or anyone for so long. I think you're the same as me. We're surrounded with so much stuff and so many obligations that we don't have a life with the people you're protecting and who might think I am arrogant or stuck-up," Buffy explained.

"First of all, Buffy, your idea that people think of you as arrogant is wrong. Second..." her mom paused stopped her rebuttal. "You know, I think maybe you're right about the other part. When we get home, the demands on our time will just continue, and it might get worse. And I'd feel obligated to keep working, and you'd go back to school trying to catch up on everything. It would turn to busy living again. And maybe after all this time cooped up together here we need to live like regular people for a while," her mom said.

"Promise?" Buffy asked.

"Promise," her mom said.

------------------

Finally, after the long meeting was over, her mom took her down to the room that would be her latest temporary home until they got new false papers for her, got her through the SAT's, and Buffy somehow found out what the hell she was supposed to study in college. "You seem a bit quiet all of a sudden," her mom commented.

"Yeah, sorry. It is a bit much. A happy bit much, but still. I have to pick a major and maybe even a career, and I'm just sixteen. I guess it's my fate. It was pretty much the same the last time I was sixteen, although there is less of the dire this time around," Buffy explained.

"There better be less of the deadly threats than in your past, too... Buffy, about your career choices. You don't have to make a final choice right away. Take a diverse set of courses when you get to college, find out what you like doing, and then pick your major that way. You even get to change your opinion halfway through. Besides, Uncle Sam is picking up the bill," her mom explained.

"Huh?" she said.

"Well, they're paying me for the whole four years, and the General even wants to throw in you getting paid for your work at the same rate of pay a regular Airman gets. Basically, combined with your existing college fund, you could get a Ph.D. fully paid by me and I'd still have money to spare," her mom explained.

She smiled and hugged her mom.

"Aww," Jack commented, appearing with a roguish expression on his face in her doorway.

"What do you want?" Buffy asked.

"Who says I want anything?" Jack replied.

"You have Jack-face... That pretty much either means you want something, you're going to prank me, or you have bad news of a kind you find funny," she said remembering her second favorite living male friend well.

"You got me. It is the last one. Janet wants to check you two out in the infirmary," Jack said.

"Damn," she remarked, and her mom didn't look much happier . . . until they both remembered they hadn't had much more than a welcome-home hug from their shared friend and hurried off together.

------------------

They walked into the infirmary. Buffy had noticed that there were no lights on inside and had already whispered, "Surprise party," to her mom.

"Surprise!" everyone from Janet and Cassie to most of the R&D department yelled out as they walked inside.

"Hi, everyone!" Buffy yelled and rushed over to hug or shake hands with all her friends.

"Janet," she whispered as the surprised woman -- still unused to her new age and height -- gathered her into a welcome hug. Janet was still, after four years' absence from Buffy's perspective, almost as much of a mother as Sam, and she was sure she'd still spend many a nervous night with the woman, waiting for news of her mom as Sam traveled the galaxy.

She slipped out of the hug, and after a shared moment Janet went off to talk to her mom.

"I don't freaking believe it," Cassie's voice came from behind her.

Buffy turned and smiled as she remarked, "Yeah, now I'm as tall as you."

"Ah, what do I care? I'm just glad you're home safe," Cassie said and wrapped her in yet another welcome embrace.

They separated and stood holding each other by the shoulders. Buffy looked over towards her mom and called out, "Mom, we're home!" Her mom smiled and nodded at her through the crowd of welcome-home wishers.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: 

"Captain, sir, you have to come see this," Lieutenant Michaels ran into the locker room and stopped in front of him, acting like he wasn't a fully trained Air Force Officer but rather a little boy.

"Lieutenant, what is doing on? Are you jumped up on something?" Captain Hernandez asked with a smile, while wondering if discipline was actually lax at the SGC. He had just gotten his transfer here and had finished his training and orientation a few days earlier. In fact, the lieutenant would be one of his co-workers as a part of SG-9 under the command of Lt. Colonel Reynolds.

"You have to see this. Teal'c – you know, the rebel Jaffa they told us about during orientation? He's training with Major Carter's kid. It is _insane_," the lieutenant explained.

Hernandez raised his head and looked at the lieutenant. Major Carter's kid was Buffy Summers Carter. She was a part of his secondary assignment. His briefing on her had been head-spinning, almost on the level of hearing about the Stargate program. She had come from a parallel universe, been off-world more than once, was a personal friend of several high level Tok'ra and Jaffa rebel leaders. And she had just been away four years in some sort of time loop, staying with the Asgard. This, added with the fact that the girl was a superhuman and a genius, made her someone his handlers in the NID wanted watched as closely as possible. "Poor kid, why is he wiping the mat with her?" he said, knowing full well that the situation was probably exactly the opposite.

"That's just it. He isn't. She is," his overly excited new teammate yelled, and gestured for him to follow as the lieutenant again dashed from the room. Captain Hernandez got up to follow, making sure he looked interested as he did so.

He jogged down the corridor to the big gym. Gerald Hernandez had to admit to himself, in the privacy of this own thoughts, that he was getting a bit excited himself. He had only seen pictures and descriptions of the kid before her little trip into space and time. The Air Force officer walked calmly into the gym where a crowd of soldiers, including General Hammond and Colonel O'Neill, were watching the show. None of the base commanding officers were cheering, and so most of the lower ranks kept their commentary sedate and private.

There was a metallic clang, and he looked across the mat-covered floor to see two unpadded people go at each other. They were a completely mismatched pair of fighters. The Jaffa was very tall and muscular, while the girl was just about average height and barely athletic looking. Still their fighting moves were evenly matched. The girl caught blows with her staff that should have sent a person of her mass tumbling along the floor, but she seemed to be fighting purely defensively, never attacking her opponent.

"Not a lot of mat-wiping going on, is there?" he commented to the lieutenant. The fight had gone on for several minutes at that point.

Lieutenant Michaels leaned in and whispered, "Sir, they fought like this before I went to get you, too. Whenever she attacks she wins after a short while, so I think they've agreed to have her be defensive to get her a workout."

The Jaffa said a few words in Goa'uld. The girl nodded and changed her stance and posture. "Wait and see, sir; now fun time is over," the lieutenant said.

And the young man was proven to be right. Buffy Summers Carter launched into a series of moves that took her into the air, involved a few kicks and a massive blow with the staff sending the Jaffa to the ground. She went over and helped the big man up while several soldiers applauded. Captain Hernandez was suddenly sure of one thing. In his assessment on how to contain that girl if necessary, he would include the recommendation of using long-distance sniping and surprise. He had forgotten all macho illusions of taking her down, one on one. That was just not going to happen. The crowd moved in and several soldiers took the chance to chat with the teenager and the Jaffa.

"Did you like the show?" a voice asked from behind.

He glanced around and realized that Colonel O'Neill had managed to walk up and stand next to him without him noticing. The older man's expression was worrying him a little. He looked a bit put out. Of course, having just been accused then barely exonerated of shooting a Senator had probably annoyed the man a great deal. It had also cost a great number of NID agents their jobs and freedom. "I did not see a show, sir. I think I saw a workout between superior hand-to-hand fighters," Captain Hernandez pointed out.

"No, Hernandez, you saw a small show. It's sort of like your service record, a bit of truth mixed in with a whole lot of fakery. You know, I recently had the pleasure of seeing an Op rid the rogue NID of a whole lot of its power. During all of that, a couple of good agents got hold of a nice bit of documentation and some talkative people that revealed several current NID ops -- even one going on in this mountain. And so I had Buffy and Teal'c open one of their little, usually closed, training sessions and have you distracted for just long enough for your clearance to be revoked, sidearms removed and your locker searched. As we speak, a security team is searching your apartment for any other evidence," Colonel O'Neill explained in a disturbingly cold voice.

"You won't find anything at my home," Hernandez said.

"I don't care. Either way, you're out of here within the hour: trust me on that. And Hernandez, we know you have connections to groups we haven't been able to reach yet. Tell them to stop their harassment of Buffy, or I will make it my personal mission to make their lives hell. And that includes their family, kids and relatives. Leave her alone, or next time it really will be me who shoots someone with a sniper rifle!" O'Neill gave him an icy stare, then nodded to two Airmen who guided him away.

-------------------

"Colonel, I did not just hear you threaten to shoot several civilians, did I?" General Hammond asked.

Jack turned towards Buffy and Teal'c, who were trying to shake off their fans. He said, "No, sir, I would never harm a citizen of the US. However, they can't understand that, because they _would _do it, and they think we're like them."

General Hammond looked thoughtful for a while, then said, "You're probably right."

"Sir, what about the permission for her to move back home? Why are they stalling?" he asked, referring to Buffy, who had been labelled a security risk by some bureaucrat in Washington and who hadn't been allowed to leave the SGC unattended since her return to Earth, four weeks ago. Buffy was bearing the limits on her movements with gritted teeth, but it was fraying their relationship with her. And, given the love both the Jaffa and Tok'ra held for the girl, as well as her considerable abilities, the General didn't want that. Jack just wanted to the kid to be able to return to a semi-normal life of school and friends. But so far the Pentagon had denied permission to reinsert Buffy into civilian life without a new identity, and they had even found the guts to suggest having her removed from Carter's custody and moved to a different location to live with specially chosen foster parents. He had told neither Carter or Buffy about that little gem yet, mostly because he didn't want to see their feelings hurt, but also because he was a little afraid of what their reaction might be.

"They aren't stalling. They have decided it would be too big a risk for disclosure or increased scrutiny if Buffy is returned to her old life. They claim that decision is final. I even tried calling the President yesterday, but he wasn't available. Apparently, he's too busy helping his vice-president campaign to take over for the next term. They offered the relocation again, but I told them it was out of the question," General Hammond explained.

"What's out of the question? Are you talking about my suggestion that you guys spiff up this place by allowing people to wear their real people's clothes every Friday?" Buffy said as she sauntered up. It looked like she had barely broken a sweat during her battle with Teal'c.

"Of course... That has flatly been turned down," Jack replied and looked at the General as if to shift the blame to his immediate CO.

Buffy pouted, then smiled. "No, seriously, I heard you guys talking," she said, her voice suddenly becoming serious and reminding him again that the girl he had known was a young woman now. Not that she had been a normal kid before.

"No one likes been eavesdropped on," he commented.

"Like I'd drop any eaves. I was just standing over there, all innocent-like, and heard your conversation clear as day. Seriously, Jack, George, why won't they let me go back to live off-base with mom? It's not like I know much more than before we went away, and I'm still not gonna tell anyone. I'm big with keeping the secrets," Buffy said and made a turning movement in front of her mouth, then mimed putting the key away.

"It isn't about that, Buffy," General Hammond explained, "They are worried that your aging suddenly will be noticed by people in your mother's neighbourhood -- and your friends from school, of course. That, they believe, could endanger this project."

Buffy seemed to mull it over before saying, "Well, I am not, no way, no how, moving away from my mom... Why don't you just move Mom and me to a different neighborhood? Colorado is big enough for none of the regular people to care. I could stay here on the base and there at home, as planned, until I get my diploma, and then I can start at the Air Force Academy next semester. I know that on paper I'm just 16, and their rules say 17, but I am very mature for my age and, well, you know I can stand up to anything they'll throw at us. Oh, and if I can get someone in Congress or something to nominate me."

Jack looked at the General, who seemed to think it over. It was only a bit different from the original and now rejected plan, but the brass in the Pentagon might swallow it, given that Buffy had more or less just signed on the dotted line for a military career with the Air Force, something even he at this point applauded. "I think they'll listen to that," he said, and the general agreed before walking away.

He turned towards Buffy, "Have you told your mom that you want to join the Air Force?"

"Yeah, we talked about it last night. I was worried that I might get assigned to something I wouldn't agree to ethically, but mom told me that all the more shady stuff is on a volunteer basis, and since I don't intend to get into nuclear physics or sign on for any kind of Black Ops duties, I think I'll be okay," Buffy explained.

"What do you want to study, then?" he asked, truly curious.

"I haven't gotten that 100 settled in my head yet, but I think I'll specialize in operations, management and strategy, along with whatever I need to be a pilot and a good officer," Buffy explained.

"You got bit by the flying bug, huh?" he said and couldn't help smiling. Sam had told the 'woo-hoo' story and how Buffy had taken to the rapid-reactions world of fighter piloting like a fish to water.

"Oh yeah, well, I might not be officially allowed to fly USAF fighters, but I know how to," she said with a smile that told him she was thinking about the near future.

"Don't remind me about that thing that will happen tomorrow. You have no idea how much paper work your mom's little fancy prototype demonstration is causing me," Jack said.

"Well, the research guys want to see the difference between the normal X-305 baseline and one running with settings specific to me. I'm the only person there has been made a programme for," Buffy said.

"Yeah, well, we're on for tomorrow. The airspace has been cleared, and I've bent or broken all the rules I could. So, tomorrow you'll be putting on a little airshow," Jack explained.

"I haven't been flying for weeks. I am so looking forward to this. But I'm a bit sad, too. I'm pretty sure that I won't be going up for a spin again any time soon after tomorrow," Buffy explained.

"Probably not," he agreed. It was already illegal that she was climbing into the cockpit tomorrow; he was sure the General and his superiors didn't want to compound the issue by making it a regular thing.

-------------------

Sam looked around at the assembled crowd that stood huddled near the monitors inside the hangar. They had come to Nevada to see her remake of the X-302 in the form of a heavier fighter she had dared to name the X-305. She and Jonas were the only members of SG-1 actually on the ground. Jack and Teal'c were up in one of the latest X-302 revisions, flying a circuit throughout the test airspace. Their job was to fly alongside Buffy, as she demonstrated the special capabilities of the X-305. She and Buffy had demonstrated that her changed model was superior to both the X-302 and the Deathglider, earlier. Sam had piloted, and Buffy had served as her navigator.

Now, however, her daughter had to be on her own. Not because of any fear, but simply because of the different configuration of X-305 Buffy was flying in. She remembered when Thor had watched Buffy and Teal'c test-flying with herself taking down the telemetry. He had asked why she hadn't made it possible for her daughter to use her clearly superior physical abilities in the plane? She had laughed it off as irrelevant, because why should she design an aircraft for a single person? But Thor had contradicted her, asking if all human pilots were the same. Then she had stopped laughing.

They had time to spare, and with Thor having started the whole thing by opening his mouth, she had roped him in to help. Two months later -- just weeks before they were leaving Vindgloed -- the second version of the X-305 had been completed, with a totally revamped electronic and avionics package. It was capable of flight with only one pilot and all the electronics, HUD and avionics were adjustable for the pilot and navigator. In fact, Thor had helped her make a HUD with a voice control that allowed a pilot to verbally control the weapons and aiming while still being dogfight capable. It had become even less of a joke when Buffy had killed them 80 of the time in all following practice dogfights, and her percentage had kept going up as they tested and found the outer limits of Buffy's reaction time and the X-305's inertial dampeners.

"Ground control, this is Ghost. We have sighted the bogey. Out," Jack's voice came over the local speakers. She went over and looked at the radar images. Everyone leaned in. She saw Buffy veer left, then go into a power dive, which she twisted even more left and levelled, suddenly coming back up but now facing in Jack's direction.

"Fox One," Jack called out as his ship locked missiles on Buffy's ship.

Buffy replied by slamming the throttle fully down, hammering past the missile's arming range, making the computer call the hit a dud. Sam smiled. Buffy painted Jack's X-302 with her targeting lasers, and the computer registered a kill as it decided Buffy's blasters had just scored a killing blow to Jack's X-302.

"Slayer, that was a very risky move, out," Jack said.

"Roger, Ghost," Buffy replied over the radio, "Slayer has the next attack run. Out."

Sam smiled again, and noted several of the generals were looking very happy with the demonstration so far.

A few hours later, Buffy was walking towards her across the airfield in her flight suit, looking both tired and happy. "I did good, didn't I?" her daughter asked.

"You crushed him, Buffy, Jack's self-confidence might never recover," Sam replied.

"Aw, come on, it's Jack. I let him win at least three times," Buffy said.

Sam just tapped her foot.

"Alright, twice. He got me fair and square the other times," Buffy admitted.

"You did well, Buffy," Teal'c agreed as he and Jack came over, looking just as tired as her daughter. It was impressive that Jack had been able to force Buffy into so many hard maneuvers that she was tired. But that was the value of training and experience, even though in the end Buffy and the superior X-305 had won 85 of the combats.

"Yay, me," Buffy said and shook her helmet in mock triumph. Sam decided she would get permission to have that helmet or one like it taken home and marked with Buffy's call-sign. It was fitting and deserved.

Together they turned and headed for the hangar where the generals, their staff, and a whole bunch of engineers were eagerly awaiting them. As they approached, Buffy lagged behind, then stopped entirely to stand and stare at her aircraft. Sam turned and walked back to her, after telling Jack that they would be right there. "You think you'll miss it, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think flying is the first thing that has really challenged me since I came here," Buffy said, "And, well, isn't it just cool to be me, my age, and then be able fly that beauty?"

"But?" Sam asked.

"But I won't be flying again for ages. It's not that cool being me confined to the SGC, and... I guess I just miss the entire friends, vacation, and life thing, again," Buffy explained.

"Buffy, I'm sorry, but after what happened with Jack and you not being allowed off base, we've just haven't been able to arrange it. But soon, I swear. This summer at the latest, I promise," she said.

"I just hope I get to walk under an open sky for a while again," Buffy said.

"There were open skies on Vindgloed," Sam replied.

"Mom, its axial tilt, atmosphere, orbit and the composition of its sun made the skies on Vindgloed pink," Buffy reminded her.

"Ah, you meant _blue_ sky. It's okay, honey, I understand completely, and General Hammond just told me that they liked your proposal a lot. And you're still sure you want to go to the Academy?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I was a bit apprehensive at first, but after I realized it would be the best way for me to get to fly and maybe get back out into the Galaxy again, I just went with it. Besides, the Air Force has worked for you, Jack, and Granddad, so why not me?" Buffy said.

Sam wanted to say, 'because you've done enough already,' remembering the stories of Buffy's past before stepping through the mirror, or because she didn't want Buffy's life to continue to be filled with strife, but she forced it down. In the end, they needed everyone they could get, and Buffy was just too good to be wasted on Corporate America. "I think it's great," she finally replied.

"By the way, I called up your granddad and he is coming to Earth as soon as possible," Sam continued.

"Did you tell him?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, Tok'ra symbiont or not, I don't want him to have a heart attack, no matter how fun you think the surprise might be," Sam replied.

Together they walked into the hangar where General Hammond had arranged a round of applause for Buffy. It seemed even multi-star generals were impressed by 16-year-olds flying high tech aircraft. Her daughter smiled but seemed very shy in that very moment.

-------------------

Buffy stood beside her mom. They waited with baited breath as the wormhole rippled to admit Jacob Carter, along with several Tok'ra who were there to relieve those assigned to help the researchers down in Nevada. "Kiddo," he said and embraced her mom. It seemed that he easily recognized his daughter.

"Why are you looking so unhappy, Buffy?" Jacob asked and pulled her into a welcoming hug. "Afraid I wouldn't recognize you?" he asked.

"A little," she whispered into his shoulder.

"No chance of that. Your beautiful eyes, nose and that hair gives you away," Jacob said and stepped back to study her.

"Man, who do I have to thank that they've kept you here at the SGC instead of out there with all those young hormonal teenage boys?" Jacob said.

She felt a little stab of pain. The Pentagon brass were still negotiating with the General about her permission to live off base, but he had promised that they were coming around. Buffy chose to put on her happy face and bear her confinement and Jacob's comment with the same discipline she had developed to keep from voicing her anger at their confinement on Vindgloed. "I think that would be the Pentagon," she said and realized she had failed to hide her displeasure as her voice resounded with resentment and anger.

Jacob blinked but chose to ignore her reply. "Anyway, I need to hear everything you can to tell me. How is life with the Asgard? The Tok'ra have very little contact with them, but we've always been very curious," he asked.

Thankfully, her mom took over the conversation as the Tok'ra were guided from the gateroom. Her mom had probably realized what was wrong and was guiding her granddad into a conversation about what they could hope for as help from the Tok'ra. It seemed a lot of it was focused on ship cloaking technology and her mom's hope that they might be able to find a way to hide with cloaks again, if the SGC and Area 51 scientists and Tok'ra worked together -- especially as a couple of Teal'c's rebels had gotten hold of a set of the upgraded sensors from an Al'kesh they had stolen from Anubis' fleet.

"We have another thing with us that you'll like. As you might have guessed, the Tok'ra don't rely on the stargate network and radio or just word of mouth to communicate. We use a special form of subspace communicators. They are much advanced and secure than the communications made available to the Jaffa. They come in small devices that can be easily hidden, and larger versions that can handle the relay of video and audio. I've brought three base stations that we think you should set up here on Earth, along with the schematics for building both the small and large units. If everything is put in place, you'll be able to have a reasonably secure interstellar communication system that only the System Lords themselves can match, but not breech easily. Of course the Tok'ra try never to exchange anything over this network except code words and the like just in case. They have never allowed the Jaffa direct access to this type of technology, and that's why we want to share it with you and the Rebel Jaffa," Jacob explained as they headed up the stairs towards the General's briefing room.

Buffy knew that usually she wouldn't have been welcome, but as she was confined to base and hadn't made a nuisance of herself she had come to serve as one of the General's assistants, as well as sitting in on all SG-1 briefings. It also meant she could stay in the room while Jack and George talked to Jacob.

"Ah, Buffy, just who I wanted to see," General Hammond said immediately on seeing her. He was smiling.

"I just got good news. The Pentagon approved your idea and the Vice-President is sponsoring you for entry into the Air Force Academy. So you can start packing. You'll be going to your new house within a few days," the General reported.

"Really, thank you, sir," she said trying on the honorific that she'd have to use a lot later on. It felt really weird calling anyone, even General Hammond, 'sir'. She felt that maybe she wasn't a 'sir' kind of person.

Jacob turned towards her with another triumphant smile. "Another Carter in the Air Force, I am so proud of you," he said and embraced her again.

"Hey, thanks," she said, a bit surprised at the reaction before she realized that Jacob was seeing the second generation after him follow in his footsteps. No wonder he was proud. Meanwhile she knew that moving to a new neighborhood also meant she would not be seeing Anna or any of her teachers from high school again -- except by accident, and then she wouldn't be allowed to acknowledge them or tell them anything. She was finding it impossible to be happy about that, but deep down she had known it was coming and had gotten ready.

-------------------

Weeks passed. Her granddad left again. Her mom became busy with all sorts of strange missions. The Prometheus was nearly lost on its maiden flight, but they managed to get it back to Earth in one piece. The General and Major Davis had some sort of political trouble that ended up in them getting a short visit from Thor at the Pentagon and then later for dinner at their new house. Apparently, the Asgard were feeling very grateful for their help with the Replicators. Her mom encountered the genetic resequencers again -- this time in the hands of that bitch of a Goa'uld she had taken down when Cassie was sick, and whom Jack had been forced to release. No one in SG-1 had gotten permanently hurt, but she knew there could still be lingering problems from that. And several others had died. She knew only too well that the effects of those infernal machines and planned to implore her mom to get regular check-ups for a while.

Buffy knew she hadn't been the greatest help, lately. She was moping around at home, unable to do much more than work out, read, and wait. Her SAT scores had come back nearly maxed out, and she could in theory have her pick of colleges, but still she couldn't start with any of them for more than four months, meaning that she had nothing to do but keeping up a routine. She wasn't employed at the SGC, so she couldn't just drop by there, no matter her clearance level. She missed being around Teal'c and her mom all the time, too. It was like she had gotten home and was suddenly even more lonely than on a planet with only one other human, as had been the case on Vindgloed.

So, when someone put a key in the locked front door that day as she was trying to beat her own record in longest time spent in a handstand, she nearly fell over. She dismounted and walked out to find her mom standing in the hall, still in her work uniform and clearly dirty. Something was up. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Teal'c didn't call in as planned," her mom said. She had known that Teal'c and Bra'tac were meeting with a load of Jaffa rebels on some planet to distribute their new communications devices. Teal'c had been excited about the gifts from the Tok'ra and had called the meeting himself. He had even asked for permission for her to come along and meet more of the Jaffa, but her mom and General Hammond had decided that she would not be allowed off-world again any time soon.

"We went there. Everyone was dead except Teal'c and Bra'tac, but Bra'tac's larva was dead. Teal'c has been sharing his with Bra'tac to keep them both alive for nearly three days. He's dying, Buffy, and as his closest family you're required to come and approve any medical operations needed," her mom explained.

"Me? Why me?" Buffy asked, completely taken aback by this new responsibility.

"After we returned from Vindgloed, Teal'c told Janet and the General that should it come to something like this and Bra'tac not be available, you should decide," her mom continued.

"What about Rya'c? According to Jaffa custom he has more rights to make these decisions than I do," she said, remembering the many lessons Teal'c had drilled into her.

"We don't know where Rya'c is. He wasn't with Bra'tac or among the dead, so you're it. I'm sorry; I'd like to have spared you this," her mom said.

"Don't be. It isn't like it was your fault. Let's just go," she said, steeling herself.

-------------------

Sam watched Buffy accept her granddad's suggestion about trying the experimental tretonin variant on Teal'c. Jacob had arrived while she had been off getting Buffy. They had barely had time to say hello, before Janet had asked for them to decide. It was a strange thing to watch Buffy make such an adult decision.

"Are you sure?" Janet asked.

"If this works, it could mean that the Jaffa could free themselves of the Goa'uld. Unless they want to keep some around to grind into their medicine. Teal'c would sign up as a test subject even if he wasn't hurt. Do it," Buffy argued.

Janet looked around as if to see if anyone would stop them from taking this big risk. Sam knew, however, that it hadn't been a frivolous decision on Buffy's part, and she was certain that Teal'c would approve if – no, _when_ -- he recovered. Her dad handed Janet the vial of the drug and started to tell the Doctor about dosages and concentrations. Buffy walked up to stand between Teal'c and Bra'tac's beds. Buffy seemed be very focused, yet was staring into empty space, and so Sam decided not to go up and ask her if she was alright. It was obviously not the case, but it was also not yet the time to comfort her. When that time came, Buffy would seek her company or leave the room completely, in either case expecting her mom to come for her. Sam knew her daughter.

"She is unhappy, isn't she?" Jacob asked after finishing Janet's instructions and nodded towards Buffy. Sam guessed he didn't mean now but in general.

"She isn't happy. Her SAT scores were stellar, but I guess the loss of her friends still hurts and she feels that her freedom of movement is limited," Sam said.

"You should make sure she gets to see all the friends who can see her, like Doctor Frasier's daughter. Throw them at each other and make sure that she gets out a lot, even if you have to take on less overtime," her dad suggested. She thought it over, and maybe she could talk Cassie into doing more than visiting every Saturday when they weren't visiting Cassie's home. It was a good idea, after all.

-------------------

Teal'c had been moved to the normal infirmary, and he was rapidly recovering. It had been nearly four days now since he had first taken Tretonin, and it seemed to work pretty much as the larval Goa'uld had by replacing his immune system. That wasn't why Buffy was there, though. Well, she had used that excuse to her mom, but there was another reason for her ignoring her dislike for hospitals. Something she had told no one about.

It was seeing him that pulled her back to the SGC every day these last few days. Buffy had seen or felt him several times before, years ago, but only in glimpses. Now he was just there, watching over Teal'c while she watched over him. Earlier, he and Teal'c had a talk about him being there and if things would be alright.

"You can see me, right?" Daniel asked sitting next to her on the empty gurney, acknowledging her for the first time.

"Yeah, but I've seen you before, or felt your presence; just never like this," Buffy admitted.

"The others don't know if they should fear, study, or just ignore you. I think I'm getting why, now. You've been able to sense us all this time, but we can't see into your mind without being in actual danger, according to my teacher," Daniel said and looked back at Teal'c.

"He will be alright, right?" she asked looking at Teal'c. She didn't want to talk about the darkness she knew lived in her mind along with everything else. It was the one of the parts of her she didn't understand at all. Her older self had, but she couldn't.

"The drug is working," Daniel replied.

"I hate cryptic, so don't go there," she suggested, feeling an intense dislike welling up from her forgotten past.

"I have to be cryptic, there are very strict rules," Daniel said.

"There always are. Doesn't mean you have to follow them," she said and meant it.

"I have to. I want to. Buffy, I'm sorry you didn't get to grow up in a normal way. Are you happy?" Daniel asked.

She held out her hand, fingers out, palm down, and wobbled her hand from side to side. "Depends," she replied.

"You have to be careful in the future. The Goa'uld are a greater threat than ever before," Daniel said.

"Mom keeps saying so. Why don't you show yourself to her and Jack more? They still miss you so much I think it hurts them. Less for mom now -- you've been gone for a while to her," she said.

"I'm not even supposed to be visiting you guys. Well, that's not entirely true: since you can sense and see me even when I am invisible, you I can visit. But Buffy, it hurts them when I do let them see me. And I love them too much to do that to them. You understand, right?" Daniel asked.

She could only shake her head. "I think it's stupid. But then, I think it's stupid that you didn't just retake human form, like Orlin did, right after ascending."

"I wanted this, Buffy. It was more than an escape. Enlightenment was what I wanted and still do. I can do a lot more good like this. I still believe that," Daniel explained, but Buffy thought he sounded a bit bitter about something.

"Are you sure it's enlightenment? I mean, can you be enlightened people when... You know what? I don't know," she admitted, not feeling arrogant enough to say that she didn't consider the very limited nature and strict rules of the Ascended to be a sign of enlightenment.

Daniel got up and looked about ready to leave. She said, "Danny, you don't hurt me by visiting. Please, I miss you." He started to fade into bright light that only she seemed to see. He didn't acknowledge her last comment before disappearing completely.

Buffy wondered for a while if she should tell Jack or her mom about Daniel's visit, but she decided to keep it a secret, like all the other visits in the past. There was no reason to tear open a barely healed wound if Daniel wasn't going to make a habit of swinging by.

-------------------

Buffy was in the backyard throwing knives, gifts from Teal'c that Jack hated and her mom barely approved of. Her target was a small piece of paper pinned to a lawn chair standing in the middle of their large garden, bounded on all sides by tall trees. Their new house was in a secluded enclave near the mountains, barely on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. It was close to both Jack and General Hammond's houses, and it was only a short trip to the SGC from there. Her cell phone chirped and vibrated in her pocket. It startled her just in the middle of a throw. The knife left her hand with too much force, sending it across the backyard to imbed itself in a tree several yards beyond the intended target.

Buffy whipped out her phone and read the caller ID before taking Cassie's call. "Hey, semi-sister," Cassie said in their recently decided-upon greeting. Buffy smiled.

"Hey, yourself. What's up?" she asked.

"Well, I got the car and I'm pulling up next to your house in ten minutes. How about you and I go on a shopping spree? You still need to teach me proper shopping endurance, O Great and Wise Shopping Goddess. Besides, I seem to recall my mom saying you had both money and the guilt of not having given me birthday presents for four years," Cassie said, affecting a Californian accent as best she could.

"Cool, I'll be right out. Bye," Buffy said, waited for the goodbye on the other end, and ran for the house after hanging up.

As she found her wallet and picked out a small backpack to wear Buffy wondered if her mom thought she hadn't noticed that either Cassie or Janet was supposedly casually dropping by a few times every week. She had guessed that the visits were a deliberate effort to cheer her up a few weeks ago, but she hadn't told anyone. She did like going out, and even with her visiting the SGC occasionally, life had gotten incredibly dull.

She heard Cassie honk and walked out, thinking that she had to have her mom give her permission to take Driver's Ed courses somewhere.

-------------------

Jonas watched Buffy leave the room and turned towards her. Sam looked in the direction of her daughter, then back down at the Kelownan man, who had just undergone brain surgery two days ago to remove the remainder of the tumor produced by Nirrti's genetic manipulations.

"So, she seems a bit happier. How are the preparations for her summer going?" Jonas asked.

"Well, it is a bit strange for me seeing Buffy going off to College, or at least a summer of basic military training. I wonder how she's going to handle basic; those instructors can get very tough on you," Sam explained.

"You afraid she'll attack one of them?" he asked.

"Kind of, yeah – but a bit more afraid that she'll laugh in their faces when they give her a command," she admitted.

"So, when the academic year starts she'll actually move to the Academy, right?" Jonas asked.

"Of course: she's gonna be a normal cadet like everyone else. But I can visit her any time. Everything is prepared now. I'll hate it of, course, but everything is ready... Well, except the paperwork; Buffy and I are signing the first set this Friday," she replied, lost in thought for a moment.

"So we'll be seeing a lot less of her here at the SGC," Jonas said.

"Yeah, well, Buffy and I have agreed that we'll see each every single moment we can, but honestly, we will miss each other. There is almost no chance Buffy will be back here before she's done at the Academy," she explained.

"We'll all miss her. Seriously, I think a lot of the younger Airmen and SG team members are lusting for her," Jonas teased.

"Not when Teal'c's around," she said, remembering the incident with Lieutenant Michaels.

-------------------

_Two weeks earlier. _

He was adjusting slowly to the tretonin. Teal'c knew that he no longer needed to Kel'no'reem, but he was still on the way to observe the ritual meditation, when he heard something that lit up his mind like fire: "...So I looked at her fine ass in those tight jeans, and I thought, 'Man, I am perving on Major Carter's kid.'"

Teal'c stepped up to the group of very young lieutenants fresh from the academy, standing right behind the speaker. Teal'c recognized the dishonorable little man as Lieutenant Michaels. "The rest of you, leave," he said in his most intimidating voice as he put his hand on the lieutenant's shoulder. They ran.

He decided that intimidating the lieutenant openly would be the gossip of the base, and so put a damper on any further dishonorable talk about Buffy.

"Why are you doing this?" the shocked young lieutenant asked, as Teal'c spun the young man around.

Teal'c grabbed the guy with both hands and lifted him by his collar. "You -- and any one else whom I hear speak disrespectfully of a woman of my blood -- must understand there will be consequences for any such talk," he said and maneuvered the man up to one of the closed elevator doors.

Teal'c heard running steps and the voice of his friend Jack O'Neill call out, "Teal'c, stop!"

He chose to use the last moments before Jack stopped him to hiss into the lieutenant's ear, "Next time, they won't stop me before I can drop you into the shaft." Jack arrived to pull him, supposedly resisting, off the terrified lieutenant.

-------------------

Jonas laughed, seemingly remembering the story as well. "So, where was Buffy going just now? She seemed in a hurry," he asked.

"Oh, Cassie is taking her out to shop and see a movie tonight. They're gearing up for a party next Friday, and Cassie doesn't have time again until next Thursday, so they decided to go for shop for it today. Buffy'll be busy, too; she's trying to cram for her driver's license test before the summer," she said.

"How is she doing?" Jonas asked, still not having an official license himself. Teal'c, who had learned from Daniel, had been teaching him a little.

"She is scaring the crap out of her teacher. Buffy gets bored by the speed of her fellow motorists and the slower reaction time of everyone else, and being who she is, she then often starts talking, messing with the radio, or focusing on something trivial elsewhere. Still, she is getting there. I think all she needs to learn is to restrain herself. She might manage the final driver's test and get her learner's permit next week, giving her even more reason to party," Sam explained.

-------------------

Thoth watched his loyal Jaffa pilot the cloaked Tel'tak the last bit of the way, settling them in to land in the woods near the humans' Chappa'ai. They had spent nearly a day in orbit awaiting the sensor report pinpointing its location. He had come for his prize. His lord and master Anubis had finally allowed him time off from the Kull project, so he could track down the girl he had lost nearly a year ago. He had everything ready: he had even gotten specially trained Jaffa, highly sensitive naquadah detectors and a few of his master's rare personal cloaking devices, as well. They'd be able to hunt their prey, who was sure to be living close to the gate, because of her Tau'ri parent and contact with the rebel Jaffa known as Teal'c, both of whom were known to operate from the Tau'ri gate.

His honor guard formed near the airlock. "Find the girl I have shown you the image of. But do not alert the Tau'ri or confront her. I, myself, will bring her in. Now, go," he ordered and watched his borrowed Jaffa leave in silence. He looked down at the modified zat'ni'katel he was preparing. The knowledge sent to him by his former students long ago -- beings so close to him he had called them sons -- had been put to good use, and the weapon was now much better at stunning strong opponents while hopefully leaving them alive and in great pain. He had to be careful in using it, but he hoped it would be able to defeat the superior warrior hidden in the little girl. And if it didn't, he had brought a few other devices that he hoped would be of use instead.

-------------------

Buffy looked out the window. The rain was pounding their driveway as Janet's car drove up to their house. It was strange to have a drive, gates, and a house that was bigger than Jack's. "Mom! Janet and Cassie are here," she called out. As she turned she thought she saw something move in the garden, but when she quickly turned back and looked there were only bushes getting whipped about by the wind.

"Weird," Buffy muttered, trying to remember what exactly she had seen, while she heard her mom open the door to allow Janet and Cassie in.

"Hi, Semi-sis," Cassie called out, carrying in the bag containing her party clothes and make-up. They were heading out to a party later, and they had designated Buffy's house as their dressing room. She pushed away the thoughts of the movements in the night and headed out to meet their guests.

"Hi, Buffy," Janet said. Buffy gave the closest thing she had to an aunt a hug. Her mom had a brother named Mark, but she had never felt welcome with his family. Because her mom was incredibly busy they had only been to Thanksgiving dinner and a birthday once, but on neither occasion had her uncle, his wife, or even his kids seemed to like her. She had no idea why they had treated her like an unwanted outsider, but given that it had been over four years ago for her, she harbored no resentment for her treatment anymore.

"So, congratulations on your learner's permit," Janet said.

"Thanks," Buffy said and turned to her mom as Cassie stepped up to stand next to her.

"We're in my room," she said and ran off with Cassie. For some reason she couldn't quite pin down, Buffy felt they needed privacy to dress up and get ready.

A half hour later they were setting their hair and chatting about life, boys, and updating Buffy on the general gossip on the people they were meeting. Buffy felt completely relaxed, as though she were surrounded by familiarity and warmth. Music filled the air, keeping the noise of the rain and wind out. For a moment she glanced around and thought she saw a branch of a bush outside her window move differently than the wind should have made it do. She blinked, thinking she saw a figure for a moment, then it disappeared.

"What's wrong?" Cassie asked as Buffy went rigid. But as she studied what she saw, it turned out to be mistaken. There was no figure in the rain, and the branch was just whipping in the wind.

"I don't know, it's like I'm feeling tense, but for no reason," Buffy explained.

"You're just nervous about the party. I promise it'll be fun," Cassie replied.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's just nerves," Buffy agreed, but she looked out into the night for a little while after.

-------------------

"My lord," Thoth heard the voice coming over the small communication globe. He walked over into the cockpit and looked down at the image of one of his Jaffa. For over a week now they had sought his elusive prize, but finding her amongst the masses of the Tau'ri had proven difficult. He hoped he would not get another negative report. He did not have unending amounts of time before he had to at least report back to his lord. "Speak," he commanded the Jaffa whose image stood drenched in the small globe.

"I have found her, my lord. The female you seek, aged, but the sensor confirms it is her. She looks like her original image, not the other one you showed us; that is why we have missed her so many times so far," the Jaffa explained.

They may have expected his coming and tried to conceal the girl by aging her. The Tau'ri had obviously failed, if that had been their goal. Still, he had to be sure. "Stay with her. We will join you there, and if I verify her true nature we will capture the creature for my experiments," Thoth commanded and went towards the airlock as the image faded from the globe. "Jaffa, call all the others and have them join me there," he said as he, too, cloaked and headed into the rainy night.

-------------------

"You have to promise me you'll get back to Janet's place at midnight," Sam intoned.

"I'll be there," Buffy said, as Cassie and she got ready to dash to Janet's car. Cassie was driving them to the party.

"Mom, be careful on Abydos," she said. SG-1 were leaving Earth early that evening in response to an official visit by Daniel. She had no idea what it meant, but she was sure it wasn't good. Her mom had not said much, except that it had something to do with Anubis.

"Have fun," Janet called out.

"We will," Cassie yelled back, while they tried to get to the car more or less in the dry.

-------------------

He looked at the Tau'ri running in the rain. They had arrived in their primitive vehicle from their home a few moments ago. Only by using his cloaked Tel'tak had they been able to follow them. But he was sure now. It was her. The face, the sensor readings -- they all more or less matched what he expected. It had to be her. Thoth turned towards the Jaffa standing respectfully a few steps behind him on the right, his helmet closed against the rain. "Lure her into combat. I will put her down. Should it fail, you must bring her out here using any means possible. I have set the trap," he explained.

"Understood, my lord," the Jaffa intoned.

"Good. Now go," he commanded.

-------------------

"Hey," Cassie yelled over the loud music.

"Who is this?" One of Cassie's classmates yelled as they shrugged off their coats.

"This is Buffy; she's one of my best friends," Cassie replied.

"Hi," the girl yelled.

"Hi, I love your shoes," Buffy replied, admiring the beautiful pair of pumps the girl wore.

"Thanks! Hey, how about I take you around and introduce you to everyone? I am Veronica, by the way," the girl said.

"Cool. Come on, Cassie," Buffy said as the girl guided them through the dancing crowd in the entry and living room, towards the stairs.

Buffy noticed a noise of some glass breaking, but as everything seemed to keep going, she ignored it. It had probably just been a glass breaking.

Upstairs proved a lot less noisy. Veronica guided them towards a room down the hall. Buffy felt a joke about sorority initiations and dark rooms coming on, when she heard a noise she hadn't expected to hear. It was the sound of a staff weapon arming. On instinct, she pushed Cassie aside and threw herself in the opposite direction. The familiar whoop-whoosh sound of a staff weapon bolt passed her and impacted the ceiling.

The screaming started downstairs. Along with the noises of Zats firing. "What's going on?" Cassie yelled.

"Jaffa," she yelled back and rolled back up into a ready position while trying to pick out something that would work as a weapon. She was in somebody's bedroom, probably the parents'. She saw a bag that gave her a good idea.

-------------------

C'tha was feeling great. After a week of watching the Tau'ri infidels go about their meaningless, godless lives, now finally his lord had allowed him to punish the evil Tau'ri. He ran up the stairs towards the female they had to capture. He had tried to wound her with his first blast, but the girl had managed to avoid his energy bolt. His lord wanted to use his powers on her, but C'tha was sure he could easily defeat her with his staff. She was, after all, just another Tau'ri, and not one of the godless monsters they sent through the Chappa'ai.

He stopped below the charred mark in the ceiling and looked to either side. He saw the dark-haired girl. "Fore!" a voice yelled behind him. Before he could turn there was a resounding blow to his helmet. He fell limply to the floor, unable to see as his helmet visor ceased working. He struggled to stand, but before he could, a blow unlike any other hit his back, punching all the breath from his body and lifting him in the air. He felt weightless, then he hammered into some hard surface and fell unconscious.

-------------------

Buffy watched the Jaffa fly back down the stairs into another of the warriors. "Why are the Jaffa here?" Cassie asked as Buffy pulled her to her feet.

"I don't know, but they seem to be going for us," she replied, when something invisible fired towards her from behind the fallen Jaffa. A zat blast crackled into the ceiling again.

"We have to get out of the line of fire, here," Buffy said and ran back away from the stairs with a borrowed golf club in hand.

"Jaffa, kree!" the distinctive voice of a Goa'uld yelled, clearly angry downstairs.

"Goa'uld," Cassie said, clearly shocked and afraid. Buffy felt a bit apprehensive herself, but more on behalf of everyone else down there. She had a feeling, a knowledge that she had to do something. It was her duty. The fear evaporated.

"Cassie, here: take my cell, call my mom, get help!" she said, throwing the cell phone to her friend. Cassie caught it. Buffy took hold of her and, feeling a bit sorry for doing it, pushed Cassie into a room and closed the door.

She turned and ran towards the stairs, the club held ready.

She launched herself through the air, hitting the first Jaffa she saw with a powerful flying kick. Buffy rolled, back-flipped, and landed on her feet. She smacked the Jaffa trying to jump her with a back-handed fist. He staggered back, just enough for her to turn and hammer a knee into his guts.

A zat blast hit her. It was jarringly strong. Her body seemed to hurt and tingle all over. She grabbed the winded Jaffa and swung him around, making him take the next Zat blast.

Buffy liberated the man's Zat from its holster and started firing at the remaining three Jaffa near the shattered living room window. "Outside," a Goa'uld said, but she couldn't see him, only Jaffa. Another blast hit the Jaffa she held. He died in her arms, going limp.

The Jaffa ran outside. She saw a figure outlined by the rain and guessed the Goa'uld was hidden by some sort of cloaking field. Another zat blast disintegrated the Jaffa she held. She hit one of the fleeing Jaffa with her own blast, sending him to the ground outside. She carefully advanced towards the window, keeping out of any obvious lines of fire.

She saw the Jaffa running into the night. They seemed to be getting away. Buffy decided to follow them. Stunning them all would sure make Jack happy. She jumped outside and ran after them, firing another shot and taking down the second-to-last Jaffa.

She stopped in the middle of the lawn, getting drenched by the heavy drops of rain. She fired and hit the last of the Jaffa. He stumbled and slid into a bush. She lowered her weapon and focused on trying to sense the Goa'uld.

Suddenly there was an intense white flash and strange, song-like noise. Buffy felt everything in her body freeze up, her view of the world went gray, then she passed out.

-------------------

Cassie ran up and looked out the broken window. She saw a figure appear out of the black next to Buffy. Before she could yell or do anything, transport rings appeared from above and swept away both Buffy and the figure she guessed was the Goa'uld they had heard earlier.

"No!" she yelled as the transport ship that had appeared above the lawn flew off, while fading from sight behind its cloak.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: 

Sam turned, along with Teal'c and Jonas, as the gate seemed to flicker for a moment. She realized that they could have another of those stuck-in-the-gate-buffers situations and took a few steps up the ramp. Suddenly Jack walked through while some smart person --probably Walter -- closed the iris.

"What happened?" Jonas asked.

"Abydos got hit," Jack explained as he descended the ramp towards her.

"Did you see it?" she asked.

Jack shook his head, "No, I felt it, just before I came through."

She turned and walked quickly toward the control room. Halfway down the corridor leading there Sam started running not stopping until she was next to Walter, "Sergeant, call up a full gate diagnostic. What've you got?" She slid into the empty chair next to him.

"I'm working on it now. A large burst of energy was transmitted through the wormhole just after Colonel O'Neill came through," Walter explained.

Jack walked up to stand behind her. "Carter?" He asked.

"We were lucky, sir. They closed the iris before any of the energy could enter our event horizon. It absorbed the blast. But it was a massive energy wave travelling through the wormhole -- as big as we've ever measured, except for the nuke incident a few years ago," Sam explained.

"Redial," Jack said while someone came down the stairs to join them. Her guess from the walk and haste was that the General was coming down. She wondered for a moment why he had even been on the base at this late hour.

"Yes, sir," Walter said and started the dialling sequence.

"Welcome back, SG-1. What's happened?" General Hammond asked and looked around.

"It looks like there was a massive explosion on Abydos just after we left, sir," she explained.

"Is that possible?" General Hammond asked, and she could see from Jack's wince that they both had the same fear: that Anubis' weapon had been completed, and he had immediately betrayed his deal with Daniel by firing it at Abydos. She also noticed that the General seemed distracted by something.

"Unfortunately, sir, now it is," Jack said.

"Chevron 7 will not lock," Walter called out, bringing her focus back to the gate, which seemed unwilling to open. Teal'c and Jonas joined them.

"Briefing room, now," General Hammond ordered, probably sensing that they had big and bad news.

"Yes, sir," she and Jack intoned at the same time and got up. Sam hadn't seen as much actual combat on this mission, and so felt reasonably rested, but Jack looked a bit worn -- probably from having seen Skaara and his old friends from Abydos die. Even if Skaara had ascended, he had lost a lot of friends back there.

------------------

"The only thing we can assume is that Anubis didn't keep his deal with Daniel," Sam explained and waited for the snarky comment she just knew Jack would put forward.

"Who would have guessed? Oh, yeah, that's right: me," Jack said, frustration and anger clear in his voice.

"And that Daniel was unable to prevent Anubis from destroying Abydos," Teal'c added.

Sam wondered how the Jaffa felt about the loss of so many humans, when a lot of archaeological evidence had hinted at Abydos being one of the first places where the Jaffa had settled and served as guards of the human slaves brought there by Ra.

"Which leaves Anubis in possession of a powerful weapon that has given him clear superiority over the System Lords. I think both the Rebel Jaffa and the Tok'ra should be warned as soon as possible," General Hammond said.

"We don't know any of this for sure. We left before the end; there might still be survivors in the camps. The gate could just be buried," Jack suggested, a flicker of hope in his voice.

"What we do know is that we apparently have to find the city that's described on that tablet," Jonas said and looked towards the broken stone tablet on the table in front of General Hammond.

"Can you translate it?" General Hammond asked.

"Oh, yeah. I believe it will take a lot of time, but Doctor Jackson did promise us his assistance," Jonas said.

Sam knew the truth, though -- as did Jack and Teal'c, from the looks in their eyes. "I'm not sure we can count on Daniel for anything, anymore. We might never see him again," she said.

"Why not?" General Hammond asked.

"Well, sir, he would have done literally anything in his power to protect the people of Abydos. If he wasn't able to do that, someone more powerful than him stopped him, and that may have been for good," she said.

"We should start redialing Abydos regularly, to see if they dig the gate back up," Jack said.

"I can handle that," she offered.

"No, I will have SG-3 deal with trying to get back in contact with Abydos. While you were away something else came up. I apologize for not telling you immediately, but the matter with Anubis took temporary precedence. Please stay seated," General Hammond said.

"General?" Jack asked.

"Major. As far as security can determine, as of 20:25 Local Time, your daughter was kidnapped by a Goa'uld and taken away from Earth in a cloaked transport ship. Due to a small mix-up with phone numbers and a junior officer at the switchboard, the SGC did not know about the incident until ten minutes after, at which point any chance of our sensors detecting the cloaked ship was long gone -- and so, we expect, was the culprit and his victim. Major, I apologize: the security people had believed that keeping your daughter under signal surveillance was enough for now," General Hammond explained.

Sam felt like she could barely breathe. Part of her wanted to lash out, cry and show how hurt she was to everyone in the room, but her ever-rational mind forced her to understand that if she broke down, she might not recover in time to deal with the immediate problems, like recovering Buffy. Still, she seethed with an anger that would only be soothed when the Goa'uld who had taken away her child was ashes and Buffy safe in her arms. She forced down a breath. "What is being done?" she managed to ask.

"Currently, security and NID are on the scene, working together to prevent any sort of leak. There is also a transport that should arrive any moment. It is bringing the Jaffa that Buffy stunned before she was taken. Cassandra saw the entire thing, and Dr. Frasier is getting the details from her now. Colonel, I want you and Teal'c to handle the interrogation of the prisoners. I want to know who took her and where he was going," General Hammond said.

"What about me?" Jonas asked.

"I am sorry, Mr. Quinn, but I have to ask you to focus on the tablet for now. Even if the Goa'uld have kidnapped one of our own, we cannot ignore the threat posed by Anubis, either," General Hammond said, and at that moment Sam felt a fierce joy. Buffy was exactly that: one of the SGC's own people. Buffy belonged with them, and as she could see on the faces of everyone around her, they would fight to get her back.

"Am I to stand down, sir?" she asked, knowing that regulations would consider her too close to the situation to be objective.

"No, Major, I want you to brief the Tok'ra on both these situations... Oh, and Major, make sure your father hears about this. Jacob would want to know about this immediately. Teal'c can fill in the Free Jaffa after he is done with the prisoners," General Hammond said and got up.

------------------

The Tau'ri had imprisoned him after bandaging his broken ribs and disarming him. C'Tha was alone in a dark cell with only the stone walls as companions. A series of lights crossed the metal bars that separated the room in two, with the primitive mechanical door on the side he couldn't reach. C'tha could, however, hear the guards moving and a loud buzzing beep from the door.

The Shol'va entered the room. For years now they had all been told of the Shol'va, who had betrayed his god. Darker, heretical rumors said that this apostate had even found some demonic power to that he had used kill the gods with the help of the Tau'ri called SG-1. The black, towering Jaffa walked up to stand in front of his half of the room. "Whom do you serve?" Teal'c asked.

"I serve Anubis, and I will never betray him. He is a god. You can do what you like to me, but I will enter the afterlife with honor and go to my proper place," he said.

"An answer as if the priests had spoken through you. What makes you believe what they say when I myself have killed Goa'uld, your false gods, with my own fists? I am no god, and neither is Anubis," Teal'c said, speaking blasphemy. But C'Tha knew it could only be untrue. Nothing he believed could be wrong. For a moment he pitied the poor misguided man in front of him, but the look in the huge man's eyes prevented him from actually laughing.

"I see it in your eyes, in your manner. You believe fully. Nothing I say will convince you otherwise right now. In time, over months and years I might be able to wean you from your belief in false gods with reason and logic. I do not have that time," the Shol'va turned and left the room again without speaking another word.

------------------

"Why did you stop again?" O'Neill asked him as he stepped outside the cell.

"He is another believer. It would take too much work to convince him. They were chosen for this mission. There is no hope of convincing one of them of the worthiness of our cause by just talking, given the time Buffy has," Teal'c explained.

"You say that, but how can you be sure? You were just in there for half a minute, for crying out loud," O'Neill replied.

"I know, however. I am certain. Questioning these Jaffa would be a waste of our time. Someone who shares my blood has been taken from her family. I cannot tolerate any waste of time. I have alerted Bra'tac. He is bringing us what we need to get the information," Teal'c said.

O'Neill studied him for a moment. "Now, you're gonna stay clear-headed about this, right? I'm as angry as you or Sam, but we need that information, and the General would never allow you to torture them," O'Neill said, reminding him of the obvious.

"Of course not, and I do not intend to. I will simply ask them," he said, and smiled as the voice of Sergeant Harriman came over the PA announcing an incoming wormhole.

"Shall we go greet Master Bra'tac?" he suggested.

------------------

"Nish'ta! You want to give them Nish'ta?" Jack nearly yelled. It was the first time in a while she had seen him raise his voice to Teal'c, and certainly the first time in years she had seen anyone raise their voice to the Jaffa, but was just because of their long exile. Sam did kind of approve Teal'c's idea. She knew it was reprehensible to use mind-altering drugs to get information. It was practically torture, but she had decided to not mind this time. Sam realized she was being a little bit of a hypocrite, but she didn't care. This was about her daughter.

"We _will_ free them of the effects afterwards, right?" Sam said.

"Of course," Teal'c intoned.

Jack looked from Teal'c to her, then back to Teal'c, then sighed, "It might get things done."

"General?" Sam looked towards General Hammond, who had remained silent for the entire session, just like Bra'tac who sat silently watching her. Jack fell silent and looked towards the General as well.

"Do it. Report to me later," Hammond said and got up. She saw from his grimace that he liked the idea of mind control less than they did, but accepted the need.

------------------

They watched as the nish'ta spread throughout the room through the tiny glass window leading into the cell. "Am I the only one who feels kinda like a bad guy for doing this?" Jack asked.

Jonas raised his hand in the background. Sam knew they all had to feel a little guilty for doing such a low thing, but she was convinced that it was the best option.

"Anubis' Jaffa has collapsed. The Nish'ta will work when he wakes up. He will obey the commands of Teal'c when he goes in. The air in there should be clean within ten minutes or so," Bra'tac explained and moved away from the window.

------------------

Teal'c calmly entered the room and looked at the gaping, almost overwhelmed-looking Jaffa. "Jaffa, whom do you serve?" he asked.

"Anubis," the young man said, but sounded unconvinced.

"Wrong!" Teal'c yelled and ran up to grab him. "You serve me!" he yelled.

The Jaffa screamed and said with his voice full of remorse, "My Lord, I am sorry! I was wrong. I am so sorry. Please, I will do anything you ask."

"Good," Teal'c said and dropped the Nish'ta-infected Jaffa to the floor.

"Now, the Goa'uld you escorted here: what is his name?" Teal'c asked, keeping his voice firm and commanding with ease.

"Thoth, he is a servant of Anubis," the Jaffa explained.

"You might escape my anger yet. What did he want here?" Teal'c asked.

"He wanted vengeance for the loss of his best students -- the Brotherhood of Thoth -- and to retrieve a young Tau'ri that he believes holds the key to some of his research into making better hosts for the gods," the Jaffa said.

"Where was he planning to take her?" Teal'c asked.

"He did not tell us, my Lord, but we came from a place called Tartarus," the Jaffa admitted.

"What do you know about this world called Tartarus?"

"Not much. It is a place very important to Lord Anubis. He makes things there. Lord Thoth is often brought there to work. Jaffa are not allowed beyond the landing bays, and even the Chappa'ai is protected by many defenses that will only admit those loyal to him," the Jaffa explained.

"Would Thoth take his prisoner there?" Teal'c demanded.

"I do not know, my lord, but I believe it possible. Four times I have been his bodyguard, and each time we were told to bring him to or from Tartarus," the young man explained.

"Bring him from where?" Teal'c asked. The Jaffa seemed to struggle for a moment -- trying to resist the nish'ta, maybe. He prepared to lurch forward and grab the young warrior again.

"We brought him from a planet ruled over by Osiris in Anubis' name. A place we call A'tan," the Jaffa admitted.

"I will consider your explanation. But know that you have forestalled my wrath. Rest here for now," Teal'c said and left.

------------------

"Anubis has a secret base, it appears. We need to find a way inside," Jack said after he had patiently listened to Teal'c explaining what he had learned from their Jaffa prisoner.

"I am not sure that is the correct path to take, O'Neill," Teal'c disagreed.

"Why not?" Jack asked, a bit taken back.

"I believe that this Goa'uld has his own base on the planet A'tan, as the Jaffa also mentioned. It would be more likely that he would bring Buffy there, if she is his project. If her capture had been ordered by Anubis, then maybe we should seek her on Tartarus. Even then, I believe we should not seek out that place first. If Anubis is using it to build weapons, it will be very well protected," Teal'c explained.

"Agreed," General Hammond commented, when suddenly the alarms blared and the PA announced the arrival of Tok'ra representatives.

Jack got up and walked downstairs along with the rest. Carter's face lit up at the sight of her father stepping through the Stargate, and she ran to meet him. Jack hoped she'd let out some of the pain and anger he was sure she had stored up inside. Carter had been totally silent and focused since hearing about Buffy's kidnapping. He knew she was just bottling it all up, trying to keep herself together until Buffy's fate was known.

------------------

Thoth studied his subject intently. Her strength and tenacity in battle had nearly cost him his victory already. He decided to make sure the female Tau'ri from that other reality that had so fascinated his master when they had learned of it from his students could not escape. She had been fitted with devices of his making, including a collar which blocked off the commands her mind could send to her body, leaving the girl numb and unconscious. Now with the Kull research nearly complete and his master's research into the advancement of the Tau'ri lifecode, he had been given a free hand to discover the source of the girl's strength, which seemed to defy both his and his master's understanding of the laws underlying their reality.

"My Lord, we're arriving at your fortress," his pilot – and the last of the Jaffa his master had lent him -- said.

"Call my slaves and command them to have my surgery prepared. I want to examine my subject directly," he said, and wished he could have allowed the child the experience of the pain he was about to cause her.

------------------

Buffy looked up the dune that nestled between two rocks which stood like twin pillars in front of a vast desert expanse. The distant music she remembered from her last visit to this place was missing, but a subconscious attraction made her climb the packed sand dune and find its occupant still there. It was her older self. It had been years since she had been able to visualize herself as this girl clearly. Yet now she could see her again. The differences between them were minimal, but visible. Her hair was naturally blonde, and she was a bit taller, but not much. The older girl was thinner, but carried herself with an experience and seeming majesty that she seemed to have lost.

"You gonna stand there staring, or take a seat?" her older self asked with a thick Californian accent. She had never been able to shake that one herself. It was a bit weird to hear someone else speak with the voice she heard in her own thoughts.

"What's going on?" she asked, not quite remembering what had happened before she had found herself at the bottom of the dune.

"You got caught by the guy responsible for me being stuck here, as well as a whole lot of other stuff. But I'm not blaming ya. _She_ says you needed to be caught," her older self said and pointed towards the top of one of the cliffs, where the image of a long-dead friend called Tara stood looking out over the desert. Something -- maybe just a feeling -- told her that it wasn't the time yet to talk to her.

"I'm sorry?" Buffy ventured.

"Don't be. Listen, we've never had time to really talk, and I have been assured we won't be able to after you leave here for good," her older self said.

"What did you want to say?" she asked, feeling a bit like she was about to be judged for living a life her older self might not approve of.

Her older self stared at her for a while, then said, "You know I'm you, right? I am not your enemy, and you might not remember me, but I have seen your life as you've lived it. You've done good."

Buffy felt a bit foolish and sat down next to her. "I think I could have done better. There were times . . . I killed the host of that Goa'uld that took the Prometheus. I'm not sorry about the parasite, but the guy . . . . I think I've never really forgiven myself, and there is other stuff, too," she explained.

"I know. I would beat myself up over it too. But I was always very proud -- maybe even arrogant -- about not killing people. And the truth is, I have killed or caused the death of people before. Not just humans, but other things, demons as well. Not all of them deserved it. At times there were people and demons that I thought I should have used any means to stop, somehow, but for every time I thought that, I later found that both mercy and mercilessness were equal assets. And you just have to accept that your actions are your responsibility, and everyone else's are theirs. Everyone has regrets and mistakes on their account. But you shouldn't get too high and mighty about this. You and I have regrets and have made as many mistakes as the next person," her older self explained.

"But from what I was told, everyone looked up to you," she said.

"Yeah, and for everyone who looked up to me and made me carry that heavy load of responsibility, there was someone else who thought I was arrogant, stupid, or just their tool. My life has been just that: a _life_, not some path of glory that you should aspire to. I have issues. I love wrongly. I let people who should treat me with the same respect I give them walk all over me, and at times I have done the same to them," her older self explained.

"Are you sure it's that bad?" Buffy asked.

"That's what my memory tells me. That's what I wanted to say to you. When this is over, don't become me. Don't isolate yourself. Don't repeat my mistakes. Believe in yourself, but try to stay humble and listen to people without letting them use you. Basically remember me but don't become me," her older self explained.

They sat in silence after that. She tried to digest what was going on. She also noted she was neither hot nor cold and the time of day seemed to be frozen at just after dawn. She looked up at the woman on the cliff, who was still standing there with her skirt flapping in the gentle, warm breeze.

"What about her?" she asked her older self.

"I don't know. When I got kidnapped from my reality and my memories were about to be erased by the Goa'uld's machines, she brought me here to preserve them. I think she is this universe's version of the Powers That Be, or something. She is all with the prophecies and stuff, but given the amount of cryptic she spouts I haven't been talking to her much," her older self explained, then looked out over the desert and continued, "Besides, it's _her_ you really should have asked about."

Buffy looked in the same direction and saw a black woman painted with white markings, the sense of great anger and power emanating from her even this far away. The being was approaching. "Who is she?" she asked.

"The other side of both you and me. She is the only thing I have never really been able to accept about myself. She is both the power of the Slayer and the part of our soul it lives in. A part of me which accepts it. Or so Miss Cryptic over there said," her older self concluded.

------------------

"Jack, we should try Teal'c's plan first," Jacob said, coming into the briefing room. The Tok'ra had gone off to scout out Tartarus, and Jacob had just come back through the gate, bringing intel.

"What's the news, dad?" Carter asked. Buffy had been gone for nearly five days now, and they had done little more than wait around. Teal'c had left Earth with Bra'tac, apparently to go gather some help.

"Tartarus is a fortress. Six upgraded Ha'tak in orbit, heavy fighter patrols, and the Stargate is covered by some sort of force field. Our scouts only got away because they jumped in from hyperspace at the edge of the system and scanned it using their long range sensors," Selmak reported.

"Convey our thanks to them and the Tok'ra Council, Selmak," General Hammond said as he entered the room. The general had a look on his face like he had just sucked on a lemon.

"What is it, sir?" Jack asked.

"I have just gotten new orders from the Pentagon. We have been ordered to cease using SGC resources in the search for Major Carter's daughter. I protested vehemently, but even the President agrees. Special as your daughter is, Major, the Pentagon feels that your time is better spent finding the weapons cache promised by the tablet Mr. Quinn is currently translating, and you're ordered to focus your attentions there. The retrieval of your daughter is considered a waste of resources and until we have concrete evidence of her position and a safe plan to get her we won't get the go-ahead. I asked them to allow you at least one attempt at getting Buffy back, because of all the classified information she was privy to, but apparently it was still considered a waste," the General explained.

"What the hell are they thinking? The kid is depending on our help. We can't just abandon her. This stinks of retribution. Are we sure the NID or their backers aren't involved?" Jack asked, trying his best to keep from yelling at a man who had no guilt in this matter.

General Hammond looked deflated for a while, then said, "I believe you're right, son. In fact, from what I hear, many of the reports that have influenced these decisions come from the NID and certain political backers of theirs have been lobbying against her."

"Why?" Carter asked. He could see the pain in her eyes.

"Revenge, most likely. It is considered a fact now that all of the rogue NID's backers were not caught earlier this year, and the remainder are showing us as indirectly as they can that they can still hurt us. I will continue to work on it, but frankly I can't do much more than order you to stop looking for your child using SGC resources, Major," the General said.

Jack watched Carter's dad move up next to her and whisper a few sentences in her ear. "Sir, I'd like to ask for my vacation time now. I am unfit for duty as it is, and I have been promised that leave for a long time now," Carter demanded.

The general stared at Carter and said, "Major, you know I cannot allow you to take your leave off-world. The gate is not to be used for this."

"I understand, sir. Still, I think I have to insist," Carter said.

"I will gladly grant it, Major, but are you sure?" General Hammond asked.

"Very much, sir, I will just finish a few things and set everything up, then I will start my requested two weeks vacation," Carter said.

"Feel free," the General said and looked from Carter to Jacob. Jack did the same and realized that Carter was still going off-world, just not through the gate, and Hammond knew it.

"Sir, permission to go on vacation as well, sir. SG-1 is not functional right now, anyway, with Carter gone, and well . . . honestly, I need the leave so I can avoid travelling to Washington and going postal on certain shady characters," he said.

"Will you be going to the same vacation spot as Major Carter, Colonel?" the General asked.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"Granted. Dismissed, people," the General said and got up.

Jack walked over to Jacob and asked, "So, how are you two planning to get off-world, and how did you plan to get in contact with Teal'c?"

"Long ago -- for me, that is -- my dad gave Buffy a second birthday gift, a secret one. That gift was a cloaked Tel'tak and a remote control for it, in case we had trouble here on Earth and needed a fast way off-world," Carter explained, "As for Teal'c, he is the one thing I had to do something about before I leave on vacation. He has one of the new subspace receivers with him, so I was thinking of using that to tell him that we should meet up and go get Buffy back."

They were headed down the stairs, when he realized they would be missing one important ingredient for their plan: equipment. "Just a moment," he said and ran back up, headed for Hammond's office.

Jack knocked politely and waited to be called in. Hammond was writing their vacation slips as he came in. "Sir, would it be alright if I put off checking in some equipment we had checked out for an exercise until I get back? It's just a few rifles, BDUs, and some other standard SG equipment -- nothing fancy that would be missed," he suggested.

General Hammond looked at him and said, "Well, if you don't have time to keep up with your paper work, we might have to look into setting aside a bit more of your time for it when you get back, Colonel. Now have a nice time... And Jack, Godspeed. To all of you. Bring her back safely, please."

"Will do, sir," Jack said and closed the office door again.

------------------

Jack stopped his car where Jacob told him to and looked around. They were in the middle of the woods, down a gravel path in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. There was a small clearing meant for hikers, but it looked empty. "So, when is our ride here?" he commented.

"It will be down momentarily," Selmak replied while manipulating a small metallic device Carter had brought from her house. Jack thought it had been a really good idea to have an emergency transport hanging around and reminded himself to suggest to Carter that they would forget about the little detail that it hadn't just been lent to them by the Tok'ra, should they ever have to report on what had happened.

Carter left the car and went around to open the back where their gear lay. "Sir, we should start getting this stuff ready," she said.

"Carter, we're not on duty. In fact we're about to leave Earth without direct orders, which is basically against SGC regulations. I think we can waive the need for military protocol, for now," Jack suggested.

"No, sir, not even for a moment," Carter said and looked him straight in the eye. Jack mulled it over and figured it was some sort of thing for Carter. Maybe she felt some things would progress too far if they got too personal, or maybe that was what _he_ thought. Still, he went with her earlier suggestion and helped unpacking, while the cracking of branches and the settling of a patch of grass told him that their transport had arrived.

"It's here," Jacob reported as the transport uncloaked. They started loading the ship.

------------------

Buffy had no idea if time passed, and if it did, how much had passed. In the end, only the fact that the landscape suddenly blurred and changed made her realize that time had indeed passed. "What's happening?" she asked.

Her older self looked up, "You're up. Your enemies are coming. Now do me, her, us all proud," her older self explained and waved towards a single figure, a woman looking exactly like her, except for the intensely arrogant smirk and the glowing eyes. She was charging towards them.

Buffy got up and waited. A familiarity arose in her mind and she remembered facing a being like this before in this place. She had been sick and weak, but the girl who had come for her had still been no match for her. She had killed her in her mind and her enemy in the real world along with her. She couldn't stop grinning with unconcealed glee.

"I am your god. You're the slave. You'll serve," the woman stated and drew herself up majestically.

"You're a parasitic slug wrapped around my spine. You know what? I don't even want to waste time talking to you," Buffy said and hammered her foot forward, using all that strength so rarely fully unleashed. The massive kick ended with her heel smashing into the Goa'uld's mental representation.

Its head blew apart like it had been smashed by a huge hammer.

"Good work," her older self said, giving her an approving look, "I've always had issues with evil ho's using my face."

"There's a story there," Buffy remarked.

"For later... Much later," her older self promised.

------------------

"Sir, I've gotten through to Teal'c. He is waiting for us in high orbit over Chu'lak," Carter explained. Jack put down the 9 mil clip he had been filling and got up. He walked into the cockpit, where Jacob was resting in the co-pilot chair with Carter retaking the pilot seat. Outside the window the stars were visible as they approached Chu'lak. Teal'c's face was visible on the viewscreen.

"O'Neill, good to see you. We were getting anxious for you to catch up," Teal'c said and smiled in that way Jack knew he only did when the Jaffa had good news about upcoming combat.

"Do you want to join us over here, or do you and Bra'tac have your own transport ship?" Jack asked.

"We do indeed have our own method of transport," Teal'c said and smiled. "Thanks to our fruitful alliance with the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri, the Free Jaffa were given access to several Al'kesh and transports. The Free Jaffa have pledged two of each of these and many warriors to our cause," Teal'c said.

"Huh!" he said, surprised. Carter seemed just as surprised as he was.

"All for Buffy?" Carter asked.

"Yes, Major Carter, but not just because of your child and her blood tie to Teal'c," Bra'tac said, appearing next to Teal'c, "Thoth is a false god, and this is our chance to strike a blow against Anubis by robbing him of a clever servant. It will also give the Free Jaffa a chance to test ourselves in battle. We have yet to do that as a group. This seemed as worthy a cause as any to use as an opportunity."

He looked at Jacob, who had just woken up from his nap to join the conversation. The former general was smiling, a bit like a cat that had just caught its lunch. Jack made a note to ask him why later.

"Well, you won't be alone. SG-1 and the Tok'ra would like to help you," Jacob said. Jack got a feeling he was about to learn why Jacob had smiled before.

"The Tok'ra?" Bra'tac asked, clearly somewhat surprised.

Jacob lowered his face for a moment to show that his symbiont was taking over. "We are not warriors as you are -- we know it, as do you. However, before we left Earth I sent a message to a few of our people, and while we could not get to Tartarus, I am sure they will be able to find a way for us to get safely on the ground on A'tan," Selmak said.

"That would be most welcome, Selmak," Teal'c said.

"Good, let's set our course for our next destination: deep space outside the A'tan star system," Carter said, and Bra'tac nodded on the viewscreen. The transmission cut off, and soon after they re-entered hyperspace.

------------------

Buffy sighed and walked back from the fourth Goa'uld she had been forced to kill now. She feared what her captor was doing to her body. She had been extremely ill the last time there had been a single parasite in her. Now, she had been forced to deal with four in short order. Of course, it might not be in short order. Time was definitely weird in this landscape of the mind.

She sat down next to her bored-looking older self. Buffy looked out over the landscape: her slayer self had disappeared. "Where did she go?" she asked her older self.

"Up there. I think she is looking for a way out – which, by the way, would be a bad thing," her older self explained.

"Why? If she finds the way out for me... I mean us. Or...?" Buffy said wondering not for the first time what her older self wanted and why it was personified in this way to her.

"If she gets out alone, you're gonna wake up in a bloody mess. That would be literally. She's all killer. No mercy, no happy thoughts, just CKD," her older self replied.

"CKD?" Buffy asked, not understanding.

"Crush, Kill, Destroy. She is not big with the human thinking or mercy for that matter," her older self explained moving like she was a stiff armed robot.

"What is she? Where does my -- I mean, our -- strength come from?" Buffy asked, having always been curious.

"Exactly? I really don't know. I was shown some men who took the deep dark essence of some sort of dark power and forced it into a girl, hoping she'd be strong enough not to become a demon from it herself. It was a close call," her older self said.

"But you're not sure?" Buffy asked.

"I believe the demon bit, but I was never sure that it was all there was to it. Besides if they took the Slayer power from a demon, which one? How is a girl fit to be a Slayer chosen? You see there are many questions there," her older self replied, and went back to looking out over the desert.

------------------

Their fleet of five ships -- two Al'kesh and three Tel'taks -- arrived in the darkness of space outside the furthest orbit of the A'tan system's planets. Teal'c walked over and took the place of the Jaffa who had piloted their ship for the last ten hours. He waited for the lead ship with his Tau'ri friends inside to call him when they had a plan. Teal'c didn't have to wait long, as Jacob Carter's face appeared on screen and the Tok'ra Selmak addressed him.

"Greetings, Teal'c, I have gotten word from our agents. We have been unable to safely use the Stargate on A'tan. However, one of our people has gotten a detailed plan of Thoth's base on the planet and its defenses."

"How is it guarded?" Teal'c asked.

"There is a Ha'tak in orbit, and the base itself is covered by a heavy force field. We could attack the mothership; however, I have proposed a more daring plan. Our agent is still in place aboard the Ha'tak for another day, and he will be able to switch off its shields for a short period of time without getting noticed. SG-1 and I will then embark the mothership undercover of a special isotope that will hide our presence from the ship's sensors. Once aboard, we will take control of the bridge and vent the atmosphere of the rest of the ship into space, leaving us in command of the ship. That leaves only the shield, and there we must ask you for a volunteer. Some of your Jaffa must take their transport ship to the nearest unguarded system with a gate immediately. That would be Irgilak, as far as we know. There, a Tok'ra agent will be waiting with a disguise. The current plan is to insert that Jaffa into the regular rotation of guards shipped to and from the base on A'tan. Once inside, this Jaffa must go to either the shield controls or the power generator and disable them. Then you can land your troops, while we use the Ha'tak to prevent any escape. Our first priority should be Buffy and the gate -- in that order, approximately," Selmak explained.

"That is a bold plan," Teal'c said, raking his mind to determine who amongst his warriors he would trust with such a mission. He could not go himself. His face was too well-known.

"We're glad you like it," Jack commented as he walked into view from the background, "We spent the entire trip here talking ourselves into it, after Selmak got us the plans of that place and proposed this."

'Rya'c,' Teal'c thought. His son was piloting one of the Tel'taks in the fleet, and his son would be motivated by their oaths and blood-bond with Buffy, as well as his need to prove himself a strong warrior. "I will send my Jaffa out immediately," he said and shut off the connection to the Tau'ri's ship.

A few moments later his son's face appeared on the viewscreen, "You called for me, father?" Rya'c asked.

"My son, I have a difficult and dangerous task for you, but you're the first I thought I could trust with it," he said, and proceeded explaining Rya'c's part of plan to him. Soon after, the single transport ship with his son aboard flew off into hyperspace. Now things were in motion, but all Teal'c could do was wait.

------------------

Buffy was suddenly torn from her contemplations in the eternal dawn of the mindscape. She was lying naked and cold on a slab of metal under bright lights. A Goa'uld walked into view, leaning in over her. Buffy immediately tried to grab his throat but nothing below her neck would move. "What have you done!" she yelled.

"Be quiet. I have suppressed your central nervous system below the neck, so that you and I could talk safely. Now, child, what is your name?", it asked.

"Tell me yours, and I'll tell you mine," she said, trying to remove any of the fear she felt from her voice.

"Thoth," the Goa'uld replied.

"Sorry, that just sounded like a cough," she said, enjoying the wild abandon that filled her mind with jibes ready to be used to tease this pompous, black-clad bastard.

"Insolent worm, what is your name?" Thoth yelled and slapped her across the face.

"Typical shriveled-dick male: doesn't get what he wants and immediately tries to compensate with violence," she said, hoping to provoke the Goa'uld to damage whatever was holding her captive. She saw that no manacles or anything like that was holding her. She also saw a long thin scar across her abdomen.

"What did you do?" she yelled and stared at the scar.

The Goa'uld leaned back and chuckled darkly from the shadows, "I took a few samples, the usual: blood, tissues. Oh, and one of your ovaries."

"Bastard!" she screamed.

There was a massive and excruciatingly painful jolt all throughout her body. For a moment nothing existed for Buffy except pain. It continued -- not in waves, but like a permanent, constant pain. She felt like her skin was on fire and all her bones were breaking, all at the same time. The pain stopped, but she screamed for a while after. Somewhere in her mind a dam burst and memories hidden away. And her old soul merged with her new mind.

"What's your name?" the Goa'uld asked again.

Buffy felt some of her strength return regardless of her body's state. "I am Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I will kill you slowly, worm," she hissed through her bloodied lips. She had bit her lip.

The pain returned. After a while, she regained consciousness.

"What is the source of your power?" the Goa'uld yelled at her.

"I am going to kill your entire race," Buffy swore, even if she was only whispering. The words came from the deep dark inside of her. A darkness that seemed to grow with every moment of pain. Images of the violent death she wished on her tormentor seemed to soothe her aches for a few moments. She almost dared to welcome the darkness.

"You'll suffer until I get what I want. Your childish fantasies do not interest me," Thoth replied.

The white-hot pain returned and continued until she passed out. This time she didn't wake up again.

------------------

"Ready?" Jacob asked.

Sam nodded, trying not to rub her arm, where her dad had injected her with some new Tok'ra drug that hid your life signs from the sensors on Anubis' ships. She hoped they'd be able to talk the Tok'ra into sharing that technology, once she got permission to share the idea their own R&D folks had come up with for the subspace communications technology. It seemed the encryption techniques used by the Tok'ra, while more advanced than most System Lords, had not developed in an environment like the Cold War on Earth. They were going to start using their most advanced encryption and decryption computers with the Tok'ra devices, and it looked like it would be an easy fit. She was sure they'd be able to trade that with the Tok'ra for something.

"Yeah," Jack said.

Sam decided not to say anything. Instead, she put on her ballistic glasses and hefted her rifle. She was heavily armed and she knew they might have to use it.

"The shield is down," her dad said and flew them inside, where they'd ring aboard and meet the agent.

------------------

Rya'c was sure that if he hadn't been following Master Bra'tac's teachings and calmed himself and his breathing he would have suffocated in his own sweat inside the helmet he was wearing. The Hawk helmet of Heru'ur was pretty, but not really all that comfortable. Trying to look as natural as possible he marched with the other Jaffa next to him into the Chappa'ai.

Rya'c looked around after their passage, which had left them on a platform inside the force field but outside the base. He could see three manned blaster platforms guarding against unwanted guests. The Tok'ra had been right yet again. At first, he had been as doubtful as the rest of the Free Jaffa about any sort of alliance with the Tok'ra, but the better side of the Goa'uld race were proving themselves to be honorable and knowledgeable allies, and with their and the Tau'ri's aid they had stopped losing as many battles as before. It was only a matter of time before entire fleets of motherships would defect to their side.

'Focus,' he reminded himself, and made sure to march with the others into the base past the Jaffa commander. The commander was the first Jaffa he had seen with the mark of Anubis on his forehead: the rest were drafted from the armies of dead gods, just as he was pretending to be,

He hoped he'd soon be able to move away from the rest and find his way to the power core or some sort of junction box.

------------------

The thumps of staff blasts were unmistakable. "I think we need to hurry, Jacob," Jack said.

"Do you wanna do this?" Jacob growled, while Carter nervously swept her P-90 from door to door. They had made it almost to the bridge before being seen, but a random patrol had spotted them. Now, while they had control of the bridge, their enemies were just outside the door, trying to drill their way in, and if those doors failed they couldn't very well evacuate all the air from the ship. They'd choke too.

There was a strange hiss from one of the doors. The sounds of staff blasts diminished, then stopped. "We're losing air, Dad," Carter said. Jack agreed: he was feeling a bit lightheaded, however that could just be his blood pressure. The room was definitely getting colder.

"I know. I have to lower the blast doors to the corridor outside. You two have to go out there and stun any of the Jaffa still in the area," Jacob said. The hissing stopped and the air temperature became stable again.

"Let's go," Jack said and motioned for Carter to follow him. He noticed they were both grimacing a bit. That made him proud. Even though they had been enemies, Jack thought it was a good thing that the both of them felt bad about asphyxiating so many Jaffa.

------------------

Rya'c saw his chance. He was walking last in line through a maze of corridors. He had passed a sign that indicated that an engineering area was close by, just a few hundred feet back, and as everyone had started splitting off for their tasks, he pretended to do the same.

He walked a loop, following the corridors around until he arrived back at the sign, and walked down that way -- still pretending to know exactly where he was going and what he was doing.

Rya'c entered a room where several human slaves were repairing some part of the power relays going all throughout the base. There were three of them, no guards, and both doors in and out were heavy blast doors that would take at least half an hour to burn open, unless they used explosives. He stopped and without warning shot one of the slaves with his staff, spun it around hammered the butt into the guts of another surprised slave, and then as the slave buckled, Rya'c smashed it into his neck.

"Stand absolutely still," he commanded, pointing his staff weapon at the last slave while edging over to the door he had entered through.

"Please don't shoot me," the slave begged, looking almost ready to drop to his knees and plead for his life, while Rya'c closed and locked the first of the two heavy doors.

"That is to be determined," Rya'c said, trying his best to imitate the cold tones of his father when he was angry. "Your life depends on this. Make that power relay disrupt the entire grid on this base, or die where you stand," he said, not really intending to do much more than shoot the man with his Zat'ni'katel.

The man seemed to wrestle with his fate, then turned and took out a crystal and shoved it into a different position, before pointing at the main crystalline structure in the relay. "Shoot that with your Zat'ni'katel. Then it will work," the slave said. Rya'c studied the man's eyes for deceit, but saw only abject fear of him.

He pulled out his Zat'ni'katel and shot the crystal. There was a slowly building hum and even the slave looked surprised, then realized something. "There is too much power in it -- it will explode," the slave yelled and ran for the open door. Rya'c followed his example.

The explosion threw him to the floor, but he managed to hold on to his Zat, and so when he looked up and saw the slave fleeing, he could lift it and fire before the corridor lights went out completely. The slave tumbled and fell to the floor, stunned.

------------------

"The shields are down," Jacob said and started the next step in their plan. The powerful weapons of the mothership started aiming for the Stargate. They didn't need it intact.

"Can you hear me, Teal'c?" Carter asked next to him as she activated one of the Tok'ra communications devices. "The path is clear. You can attack now," she said.

"Thank you. We are jumping now," Teal'c replied. A few moments later the heavy Al'kesh and the single transport ship arrived next to them and sped past, heading towards the base below at a breakneck speed.

Carter looked a bit conflicted as the ships descended. "You want to be down there, don't you, Carter?" Jack asked. _He_ really wanted to be down there. He hadn't acknowledged it until now, but there was actually a chance Buffy wasn't down there.

"Yes, sir," Carter whispered.

"Go. I can handle keeping this hunk of junk parked until you get back. Just take the transport," Jacob said.

Carter looked at Jack, awaiting his command even at that moment. He wondered why she insisted on it, but he just said, "Let's go."

------------------

Buffy had woken from her pain, finding herself back in the desert. She walked back up the dune. She felt tired or maybe just older.

Things were different, however. "What's going on?" she asked. Her older self was gone. The image of her friend Tara stood there, between her and the savage Slayer.

"It's time that we talked," the woman said.

"Alright, who are you? The Powers That Be? One of the Ascended?" Buffy asked impatiently.

"Neither, I am more than that," Tara replied.

"Who, then? God? Goddess?" Buffy asked.

"If there is a higher being, he, she, or it is beyond me, which makes sense. No, Buffy, I am the mother of all," the woman explained, which Buffy decided was no explanation at all.

"Listen, I just got tortured and probably had amateur surgery done on me by some crazy, parasite-infested Egyptian-god-wannabe. Now, talk sense," Buffy insisted.

The woman laughed, "Finally! I was getting worried that your attitude wasn't in there. Buffy, think for a moment. I am the mother of all. Not god. More than the Ascended. I encompass everything you have experienced in this dimension."

Buffy blinked and an awed expression spread over her face, "You're the Universe."

The woman tapped her nose and nodded. "I am the will, the intent, the very emotional core of what you call the universe. I am its personification. And I have chosen this form, because it is a person you consider motherly that I could use without inflicting the pain of having to see your long departed mother again."

"What do you want with me?" Buffy asked, a bit impressed. It was different having a brain all full of science now. The universe was so vast it was mind-boggling. She couldn't quite figure out what it wanted with her.

"First of all, let me apologize. I started the series of events that led to your coming here intentionally. Me. No-one else. So all the blame is mine, as well. But your future in your old universe was bleak and short-term, while I need a hero: You," the being with Tara's face explained.

"Why me?... No, wait, I don't want to know," Buffy said.

"Not to worry: it's too soon to tell, anyway. We won't meet here again," Tara said.

The Slayer behind the woman seemed to look around and sniff the air, then ran off down the dune. Buffy looked after her, then back up at the woman.

"You shouldn't let her get away," the woman suggested. Buffy looked around and considered going after the Slayer, but decided there was one other more pressing question.

"Where's my older self?" she asked.

"Back where I took her from. Yes, in the end, it was I who took her and hid her here in safety. But now she is back... with you. Can't you feel her returning inside of you? Now, remember what she told you and stay strong... Remember that I love you, my Champion," the woman said, and seemed to speak with the voice of every one of her friends and family, past and present.

"Now, go! You have lingered too long," the woman said, suddenly looking upset about something.

Buffy sensed a strange exhilaration within her. She ran down the dune in the direction the Slayer had gone. She took a step off the dune and was suddenly wrapped in darkness. There was a flash of rapid fire images

------------------

Buffy saw her body rise from the slab where the Goa'uld had kept her. But it was her in control. Someone else was in control. She saw herself sniff the air and then look towards the door where a Jaffa had just entered. A feeling of pleasure surged through her body as she launched herself forward. It was readily apparent to her how this Jaffa would fight. She could see it. She had fought the best they had and now the rest held few surprises for her.

------------------

"It's the Slayer," she said, realizing that she understood and remembered the feeling and darkness that was all around her. The feelings that had come with the rush of images had been disturbing.

"What's happening?" she wondered. Her memories told her of the time when the Shadow Men had tried to make her like the First Slayer -- a barely human weapon for their use. The feeling then was the same as now. She was inundated within the Slayer. It was in control of her body.

------------------

The Slayer charged down the corridor. Blasts of orange and blue surging in the air and splashing harmlessly across walls as they missed. The Slayer grabbed an enemy in the lead and used him as a shield then as his comrades killed him as a limb flesh club. The Jaffa had no chance of stopping her.

There was a surge of pain as some blue fire danced across her form. She turned and hammered her hand through her enemy's armour and ribs.

------------------

"She's only a part of me. I control it," she decided, and remembered how she had instinctively known to control the Slayer within her almost from the beginning. Her control had grown until the end, with every day a silent, unspoken struggle that only the other Slayers had understood. But this time she failed.

"Why won't it work?" Buffy thought. She had controlled it in the past. Had it gotten stronger? Not really – well, maybe a little. It didn't feel much stronger. She realized something from a conversation with Faith that bubbled up in her memories. It had been after Sunnydale, during one of Faith's visits to Scotland. Faith had told her again that the Slayer wasn't an "it": it was her, a part of her.

Buffy wasn't one to throw around words like 'epiphany' often -- mostly because it was a pretentious word, but also because she rarely experienced anything like that. She had one then, though; she was sure of that. She had often claimed to have accepted her position of being a Slayer. Many had called her a hero, but she hadn't always been one. She had railed against being one, she had tried to shirk her duties, run away from them . . . even, in a way, sacrificed her life to end her life as the Slayer. That had been her one secret weakness. Even with all her claims of acceptance. In her soul, she had never been able to accept the darkness as a part of her.

The new parts of her mind -- her personality and all the love and support she had gotten in the past and which she knew she'd get in the future -- allowed her to finally see this. She looked deep into the darkness, but didn't try to force it back into a box, fight with it, or even hold it back. She embraced it, not as evil, but as a part of herself as essential as the rest.

------------------

Buffy blinked and found that she stood in an opulent room. A Jaffa guard was impaled on a protrusion at the other end of the room, while a bleeding and babbling Thoth was on the floor in front of her. She knew she could show him mercy and take him prisoner. But she was all alone in a Goa'uld base. The chances of her getting out with a prisoner were slim to none. Carefully, she walked over to the snivelling parasite-infested man and picked him up. Apparently the Slayer had ripped his hand device off and thrown it somewhere, because his left hand was bleeding.

"You stopped," Thoth said, and a mad hope appeared in his eyes.

"Not really, I just remembered that I am a person not a killer. That was just the intermission, however," she said.

"I could be a valuable prisoner," Thoth suggested. Buffy heard shooting, and an explosion rocked the building.

"I don't want any prisoners," she said and knew what she really wanted to do. There were other options, but she had made a promise, and really it was an act of mercy for the host, at least, according to what Teal'c had taught her. She decided to show a bit of mercy. Buffy reached up with one hand grasping the back of Thoth's neck. He started to struggle.

"You in there, I am sorry, but I promise you'll be going to a better place," she said, hoping the host heard her, then closed her hand with all her might around the man's spine and the Goa'uld entwined with it. There was a series of ghastly cracks. Thoth stopped breathing and fell to the floor immediately. She whispered a goodbye for the host and wished his soul a good passage into heaven.

She looked around and saw a window. Buffy walked up and looked out. The base was a thing of beauty as its brass metallic surface was lighted by the reddish gold sunshine of dusk. And the orange blasts of an Al'kesh's weapons as it started its attack run.

Buffy gasped, then shook her head. "Perfect timing," she said, and looked around for some sort of clothing and maybe a shower to wash off the blood of the Slayer's victims. Buffy tried not to dwell on the thoughts of the horrid things she had done, while under the temporary control of her vengeful dark side. It wouldn't happen again.

After nearly ten minutes of looking, Buffy found some clothes that were made for a woman, mostly white and gold. They were pretty, in that over-the-top, Goa'uld way. Still, she put them on after washing in the small water basin she had also found. Buffy realized she was feeling very serene and unconcerned, given that she was in the middle of an enemy camp during a battle.

She shook her head, "Get it together, Buffy," she reminded herself and looked around for a weapon. A staff was available but bent neatly at ninety degrees. The other option was the hand device. Buffy bent down and picked it up. She went over and washed it, as well, before putting it on.

Her mom had told her how to use Goa'uld devices while on Vindgloed, but they'd had none available to train with. She hoped she could improvise. She focused on the device and tried projecting her anger into it. A weak but definitely present wave of force nearly lifted her as it hit the floor.

There was a heavy knock on the door. Buffy back-flipped, dropped and rolled underneath Thoth's bed.

------------------

Teal'c and another Jaffa pried the door open. She and Jack had found Teal'c in a courtyard earlier as he was directing his troops, and they had gone through the building, systematically working their way through the enemy Jaffa. The chaos of the power outage, the attacks from the Ha'tak, and now Teal'c's attack had clearly given them the advantage of surprise to go along with the advantage in numbers Teal'c had brought with him.

They had more or less gone directly for Thoth's residence, especially after learning from a prisoner that he was home. However, it looked like Teal'c's troops might have gotten there ahead of them. There had been several dead Jaffa in the corridors leading up to the sleeping chambers of the Goa'uld, and the door looked like it had taken a beating at some point earlier. The door finally opened, and they advanced into the room.

"It would seem that we will not be able to question Thoth," Teal'c observed.

"Why?" Jack asked.

"That is his corpse on the floor," Teal'c explained.

"Teal'c! Jack!" Buffy's voice yelled. Sam felt a shiver of joy run down her back. Buffy leapt from her hiding place under the bed and ran halfway towards them, before seeing her. Before she could do or say anything Sam found herself wrapped in a warm and welcome hug from her daughter.

"Mom. I've missed you so much," Buffy said and rushed over to grab her in a hug. All those emotions she had been suppressing flooded back to her and she cried as she held her daughter against her and breathed in her scent, while her daughter did the same. She realized something though as she held Buffy. Something was off, a little different. She leaned back and held Buffy out to look at her fearing that a Goa'uld was nesting in her.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked her daughter.

Buffy looked at her with teary eyes and said, "I'm not sure. But Mom, I remember now. I remember everything. Oh, Goddess." Buffy suddenly broke down crying and all she could do was hold her, while Jack and even Teal'c wore expressions betraying their feelings of worry and confusion.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: 

Jack looked around, while Carter hugged Buffy. He didn't want to break things up, but they were in the middle of a battle and quite frankly they needed to stay focused. As he thought about it, he glanced around the room and really took in its state. Buffy, because it could only have been her, had really not been kind to the two Jaffa that had been Thoth's bodyguard. One was still mounted on the wall, hanging like an ornament from the architecture he had be smashed into, and the other at the door could, if he had been alive, check out his own ass because he was looking down his back anyway.

He heard Carter ask Buffy, "Are you all right?"

Jack was about to comment that she had obviously worked off some anger already, when he suddenly realized who he was thinking about. This was fierce yet somehow innocent Buffy. She was strong and a fighter, taught martial arts by the best he had been able to find. He looked back at the Jaffa on the wall as Buffy answered her mother, "I'm not sure. But I remember now. I remember everything."

"You did all of this, right?" Jack asked.

Buffy left her mom's embrace and looked around. "Yeah, I did... I was a bit miffed at the time, Jack," Buffy replied. Her tone was different -- a bit more insolent, challenging even, and if possible more self-confident. The girl that had come back nearly a trained soldier and a bit subdued in manner from Vindgloed was not fully there any more. This was someone else. Not entirely different, but still this was a new Buffy. And it was only a few months since she had completely changed on him the last time. It was rattling his cage a bit. And if he had to admit it to himself, he was unsure if this Buffy, the one who remembered being someone other people had called the Slayer, was on their side or her own.

"You did all of this," Carter said, sounding shocked.

Jack noticed from the wince on Buffy's face and the sudden, momentary disappearance of all that newfound self-assurance, that it had not been a welcome comment. "Good work. Now Carter, you and Buffy form the rear guard; we still have a base to conquer," he ordered.

"No," Buffy replied.

"What?" he and Carter said at the same time.

"I am not a rear guard kind of person," Buffy said and held out the hand device. It glowed for a moment. Buffy smiled at it. "Besides, I'm armed and ready for a fight." She paused, probably taking in his expression. Jack wasn't liking Buffy with a weapon. Of course he knew, intellectually, that she was old enough, had been days away from going to the Air Force Academy, and that she still learned the use of any weapon by watching their use. But he was in charge and he didn't let civilians lead. Ever. Especially not one he had come to rescue.

"It wasn't a request, it was an order. You have to get used to those, now," Jack reminded her.

Buffy seemed to mull it over, then said, "I am sorry. I know you've all taught me better, and I swear I'll get my head together and relearn the entire team player routine in record time, but I gotta quote an old friend of mine on this occasion and say: Screw that." She headed towards the door, stopped at the entrance, looked out carefully, and suddenly ran away.

"Buffy!" he yelled, yet again in synch with Carter.

They immediately moved to follow her, while Teal'c said, "I believe we are meeting the Elder Buffy. She would be used to giving orders and leading the charge."

Jack thought it over and in his mind found himself agreeing with Teal'c. This was probably the result of Buffy's old personality returning. He hoped for the sake of both Buffy and Carter – as well as himself, if he was being honest -- that it didn't mean their Buffy had disappeared permanently. From her expression he could guess that Carter was thinking about the same. They entered the corridor and saw Buffy in hand-to-hand combat with a Jaffa.

Buffy was ducking under the man's swings and blows until she was right up next to him. But instead of punching or kicking him, she only manoeuvred herself into place, so that she could place her hand, palm out, against the Jaffa's chest. There was a discharge from the hand device and the Jaffa was blown hard against the corridor wall. He sank to the floor, clearly out of the battle.

Buffy continued on, before he could yell for her to stay with them. They moved after her and saw her enter into yet another battle, quickly surprising and throwing a Jaffa into a wall after a combination of what he recognized as Aikido and Judo. The Jaffa slammed into the wall hard enough to dent his armor and leave him unconscious.

Buffy paused to look at something, a bit taken aback by something they couldn't see. She turned and yelled back towards them, "Stay back." She manipulated the hand device again and fired down the left corridor from the T-junction she was holding, before ducking back into the corridor they were running down. She held up a hand with three fingers, probably indicating the number of attackers. He signalled to Carter.

Carter took the grenade from her pack, pulled the pin and carefully bounced it down the corridor Buffy had fired down. It flew over the crouched girl and disappeared down the hall. "Jaffa!" A voice cried out in desperation, then there was a massive explosion.

"Why the hell did you run?" Jack grabbed Buffy's arm and asked.

"Because you had that look on your face. The 'let's-keep-Buffy-safe' look that I have to say I so don't need right now. I'm not a fragile little girl. I never was. Hell, for all intents and purposes my mind is almost thirty, except of course I'm not that old. I'm sorry I ran. I reacted with a minimum of thinking -- not the smartest thing,-- but I knew I had to convince you early on," Buffy said.

"That you can fight? I've practically known that since I met you," he replied.

"No, I was trying to convince you that you should let me fight," Buffy said and looked him straight in the eye.

Jack suddenly knew she had caught him there. That had really been his problem. She was the rescue mission and a little girl to him, not a fighter. That was what she had tried to tell him. He hadn't listened. A voice in his head hinted that maybe he should listen now. Instead, he forwarded the decision to the one voice Buffy had to heed in this. "Carter?" he said, and pushed the issue out of mind as best he could. He still had a firm belief, deep down, that Buffy shouldn't be living the life she was aiming for.

------------------

Sam was as astounded as the rest of her team by her daughter's behavior. It was still her Buffy, but there were subtle differences in mannerism, reactions and even in the way Buffy spoke. Jack was waiting for her answer to his tacit question. She looked at Buffy, who was still somehow -- even with a whole other person and lifetime added to her personality -- awaiting her decision, and if her instincts didn't deceive her then this Buffy even wanted her approval. Sam thought back and realized she had been preparing for a moment like this for years. It would have happened, sooner or later, if Buffy had gone to the Academy as planned. "Let her, sir. I know my daughter, she'll kick ass," Sam said and smiled warmly before refocusing on the mission at hand. She didn't want to get too mired in emotional stuff while in the field; that was a recipe for disaster. Even if a part of her wanted to stare into Buffy's eyes and see if her kid was still in there.

Buffy grinned and held out a hand towards Jack, "Gun." she demanded.

"What? Why?" Jack asked.

"I can work this thing, but it's taking too much effort and time. It's an impressive weapon, but way too slow for a running fight. So can I borrow a gun? I promise I will return it, sans any used ammo," Buffy said.

Jack looked conflicted for a moment. Sam knew this was a difficult turning point for him. Slowly he unholstered a 9 mil semiautomatic and handed it to Buffy, who promptly thanked Jack and held it correctly. Sam noticed that Buffy looked ready to go off and fight again, but was trying to rein in her instincts and habits, if the tenseness of her shoulders was any indication. Her child had never been afraid of battle, but she had never before seemed so at ease with it, either. Again, a difference, and she was starting to fear that her Buffy was no longer alive.

"More Jaffa approach: I will ascertain if they are enemies," Teal'c said and stepped out into the corridor. There were yells of "Shol'va!" and Teal'c jumped back into cover.

"High and low," Buffy said to her, barely giving her mother a moment to realize what Buffy meant before Buffy dropped sideways into the corridor ending up prone with her upper body free of the wall in a move that would have made anyone else miss every shot.

Buffy started firing, distracting the Jaffa and maybe even hitting several. Sam and Jack grabbed their P-90s and jumped out, in turn, laying down a major field of fire, while Buffy rolled to her feet and stepped back into cover. It had turned into a turkey-shoot and soon not even one of the seven attacking Jaffa was left standing. To Carter's shock, it actually seemed that Buffy was enjoying herself for a moment, before some thought wiped the joy from her daughter's face again.

------------------

They had fought around the base for nearly three hours before Bra'tac declared victory over the Goa'uld's PA system. Jack felt bone-tired, but at least he wasn't alone in feeling the pain of over three hours of intense work and concentration. He nearly grimaced when Buffy, her arm bandaged from getting clipped by a staff blast, walked over to him, still with a spring in her step.

"So, you feeling your years?" she said with a teasing smile on her lips.

"This is the part where I call you 'young whippersnapper' and tell you to go away, right?" He replied.

Buffy chuckled, then sat down next to him and offered him something in a metal bowl. "Bra'tac found the mess hall, and I thought we might as well get a bite, while Granddad lands the latest Ha'tak you've captured," Buffy said.

"Good idea. You know, I wonder about that ship. Aside from schematics and maybe a once-over for any technology we don't have yet, I doubt anyone on Earth really wants that thing anymore. Your mom's Prometheus is keeping them really busy, and we're beginning to trust things we can build ourselves more than what we find," Jack said and took a bit of what proved to taste like sweet cereal mixed with something resembling strawberry juice. "This tastes good, if unhealthy," he said.

"Teal'c and Bra'tac swear it's a luxury breakfast for Jaffa. I ate, like, three bowls already," Buffy commented.

"I like this, too," Jack agreed, not wanting to crack any jokes about getting fat. Sam and Janet had fought long and hard to have Buffy eat healthy for her metabolism. It would not be good to get Buffy started on body image issues. "So, I have to say, you still seem to be you. I kinda expected a totally different person, from the stories your mom heard from that other Slayer," he continued, deciding to broach a heavy topic that would probably occupy Sam and Buffy privately for the next long while.

Buffy looked at him and her smile changed to become a bit self-mocking. "Yeah, savior of the world many times over and all around perfect American Girl Buffy Summers, the Ultimate hero with the stiff upper lip. Right. I think a really good friend of mine said it best when he said I should get over myself. Or at least someone did. I have, though. Gotten over myself. Besides, you know how it is: saving the world -- while monumental --doesn't really change who you are or that you have to deal with tomorrow's problems, either," Buffy explained.

He could see it now. She was a bit of both girls, and they hadn't been too different to begin with. Their Buffy had, by her own admission, been a whole lot smarter and the other one had probably been a much better warrior. "I understand what you mean," Jack agreed.

"Jack, I've been thinking about something I read a few weeks ago. Is it true that if I want to join the SGC I can never work for or with... my mom? That it's against regulations?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, but it makes sense, doesn't it? What if you were in danger? Wouldn't your mom feel forced to do everything in her power to help you?" he explained.

"But she gets to work with Granddad," Buffy said.

"Yes, but he works for the Tok'ra, and our rules can't really force the Tok'ra council to send someone else on these missions," he commented.

"Ah, so if Teal'c wanted Rya'c to come work for him, he could," Buffy mused.

"Yeah," Jack said, not bothering to add that Teal'c had thought it better not to have his son join him on Earth.

Buffy looked around, "So where is Jonas and the rest of the SGC soldiers? I only saw Jaffa."

Jack winced before he admitted, "The Pentagon thought it would be a waste of resources going after you. Officially, your mom and I are on leave, while Teal'c is visiting his family and Jonas translates something."

"What! Why didn't they want to rescue me? The Generals were so nice to me at the Air show you and I held," Buffy complained.

"Because politics entered the picture, and we had a setback against Anubis. Besides, Hammond thinks that maybe some of the rogue NID's backers had their hand in it, as well. They were taking revenge on us, not you. You shouldn't let this sour you against the Pentagon. A lot of really competent people work there," Jack said.

"Well, screw all of them. You know what? I'll go annoy my mom for a bit," Buffy said and went off in search of Carter, who was probably already looking through the dead Goa'uld's stuff for anything they could scavenge. He wondered what Buffy really thought about it being the Jaffa and Tok'ra, not the SGC, who had come to her rescue. He knew their Buffy would have rationalized it away, but this one felt a bit more like him – anti-authoritarian, that is.

------------------

Buffy could literally feel her wound close and wished she could find some time to sleep, as the dull ache would, in her experience, fade overnight. She had lied to Jack a few moments earlier. She didn't want to go annoy her mom at all. She wanted to find her mom and ask her about the subject Jack had just broached with her. She was wondering if she was still Samantha Carter's daughter, now that she remembered being Joyce Summers' as well. Buffy had felt the same love as always when her mom had appeared with the rest of her friends a few hours ago. But she had to be sure, and she was certain her mom felt the same insecurity. Were they still mother and daughter? Did they both want that? Buffy felt unsure, and it scared her a bit. She knew she was different again, and worse yet, having two sets of memories of growing up was beyond confusion. She was sure that if she hadn't had Sam Carter's DNA and the benefit of her SGC-supported upbringing, then she'd never have had the mental capacity to stay at least semi-sane.

She passed Bra'tac in the halls. The old master warrior looked thoughtful and distant as he walked resolutely towards the hall she had just left. She guessed he was going to talk to Jack or one of the Jaffa there. Instead of going on, though, he stopped and looked down at her. "Can I help you, Master Bra'tac?" she asked, shifting to Goa'uld and hoping her recovered memories hadn't scrambled her skill in that language. She tried her hand at being polite and patient, something she had mastered in this dimension.

"I would apologize. In the past I had considered you a child, and even after Teal'c returned, having trained you himself, I must admit I considered you a woman but not a warrior. I am sorry, and I will not make the same mistake again. I would be honored to fight at your side again," Bra'tac explained.

She decided the older and slightly pompous Jaffa was a actually nice guy, then and there. "Nothing to apologize for. I kind of like it when people underestimate me. It feels familiar. Anyway, I just did my best," Buffy said.

"You killed one of the false gods with your bare hands -- that is a great feat. Now, Buffy Summers, we know each other well enough to speak to each other by name, yes?", Bra'tac asked, looking apologetic for his possible presumption. She just nodded, trying to look as grave as possible. The Jaffa liked stoicism. "Good, should you ever need my aid again, I will come," Bra'tac said and walked on.

Buffy watched him go and thought about the success Teal'c and Bra'tac had to be feeling. The first battle of the Free Jaffa against the very best Jaffa of Anubis, and the Free Jaffa had totally kicked ass. "Master Bra'tac!" she called out.

The old warrior stopped walking and turned, looking at her with curiosity while he asked, "Yes, Summers?"

"Do you know where my mother is?" Buffy asked.

"Ah yes, somewhere on the fifth floor over there; she has discovered the source of Thoth's knowledge," Bra'tac said.

It ended up taking her fifteen minutes to find her mom standing in front of a Goa'uld computer, working her way through the inventories of inventions. Only the screen lit the room. All the lights were dimmed in this section of the building. A fact that had helped when Buffy had escaped from a room a few floors up and gone on a rampage, tracking down her prey, several hours earlier. Even her memory of those rather messy minutes of her life was slowly returning -- not the best thoughts to have running through your mind, and something she hoped to repress over time.

"Mom?" she asked softly, almost feeling like she was testing the title again. Thankfully it felt right, if still not perfectly so.

Sam turned around and looked at her, a soft smile coming to her lips. "Hey, you," Sam said and gestured for her to come over.

Buffy went over and stood at her mom's side. Even though taller than she had been, she could still only put her head on her mom's shoulder. As she stood there, she understood two things. She had really missed Joyce, so deeply that it had been as if a part of her had been missing since her mother's death, and Sam wasn't her replacement. She was another mom. It took her a bit of thinking to get it to fit in her head, and it would probably take a lot more thought over the next months -- maybe even years,-- but in the end the emotions she felt for both women were of the same intensity and type. Her relationships with her mothers were vastly different, too. Joyce Summers had been a loving, all-encompassing mom who had shared in all her normal needs and interests. Joyce had fought to keep Buffy from getting consumed by her life as the Slayer when it had secretly been way too much for her. Sam was equally loving, but she was more the type to constantly challenge her to be the best, and Sam was accepting of her flaws and weirdness in a way Joyce had never truly managed. Sam was, however, much more of a closed book to her than Joyce could ever be. They had both been what she needed at those times. But as she stood next to Sam she understood that she would possibly never really stop needing either of them. And if she could have had paradise it would have consisted of her two moms, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Giles, Jack, Daniel and a human Angel, all living out the rest of their lives in peace . . . but it would never be like that. Because she was a warrior, chosen as one of the universe's protectors, and she was never going to see her old friends again, either. That depressed her

"Deep thoughts?" Her mom asked.

"Yeah: life, destiny and shopping," she quipped, indicating her borrowed set of Goa'uld clothes.

"Hello, you know we've met before right? Of course, I brought a change of clothes for you. It's in our transport ship. Granddad will bring it down for you," her mom said.

"What'll happen with this place?" Buffy asked.

"I guess the Jaffa and the Tok'ra will take whatever they can from here before Anubis sends ships or troops to take it back," her mom explained.

Buffy felt uncomfortable with the next things she had to ask, "Mom, before we go, could we look for the samples Thoth took of me? I don't want anyone to own a part of me."

Her mom turned and looked at her with worry in her eyes. "Of course. I just wanted to get the copy of Thoth's database. It looks like he kept it in Ancient. Maybe it'll help us against Anubis later," her mom said and pointed to a rigged-together crystal recorder the SGC had first developed for the Prometheus computer systems and now was being used to interface with and store the data in the machine it was attached to with what looked like fiber optics.

"Something has happened, right? You all seem a bit more on edge about Anubis, and Jonas isn't here because of it as well," Buffy commented.

"We think he might have destroyed Abydos with a weapon that ensures he completely outclasses the other System Lords. Worse, we even gave him the final component in trade for our lives and something else he can't know about," Sam admitted.

"Not good, but the first rule should always be: Don't Die," Buffy agreed, remembering how she had pompously tried to educate a group of girls nearly her own age with those words. She had been out of her depth so often back then. She hoped she'd avoid that much responsibility this time around, but given the role that the being claiming to be the Universe said she was to play, there was at least a chance of it happening again.

"Maybe," Sam answered and, after a beep from her recording device, disconnected it from the console.

"We should look for the samples now," Her mom said and indicated that Buffy should follow her.

They ended up looking for hours, but found nothing. And that scared Buffy.

------------------

Jacob carefully considered the assembled group: Jaffa, humans and now a couple of Tok'ra were crowded around the entrance to the Goa'uld base. They had conquered the base nearly nine hours earlier, and since then they had all worked hard -- especially the Free Jaffa warriors -- to strip the base of anything of value. He and Selmak had, like his daughter, copied the data stored in Thoth's and the mothership's computers. It had been suggested that the precious personal cloaking devices the SGC had gotten hold of when Buffy had taken down her Jaffa attackers on Earth could be studied by both human and Tok'ra scientists with a promise to share any results with the Jaffa, but Jack had been unable to promise anything. All the stuff at the base, except the intelligence gained, would go to the Jaffa. The Intelligence information and scientific data were shared between the Tok'ra and the humans. Now they were discussing the final major piece of the spoils of war: the Mothership. Jacob had agreed to let Selmak lead the discussion for the Tok'ra, who actually didn't want the mothership, because they wanted to keep a low profile. The humans, argued Jack O'Neill, didn't really want to keep it either: they would like to take it apart, instead.

"I ask that you consider giving it to the Jaffa," Bra'tac suggested.

"If you keep it at Chulak the System Lords would feel obliged to send a contingent to destroy it," Selmak answered. Jacob reviewed the history of rebel Jaffa taking motherships as Selmak remembered it and agreed with his symbiote.

Buffy, his granddaughter and one of the universe's main contenders for the title of strangest life ever, spoke up: "Why don't we ask the Asgard if it's okay for the Jaffa to have a base in our solar system? Then Bra'tac and the others can move the Ha'tak there and help protect Earth. The SGC helps furnish and maintain it in exchange for getting to examine the ship, so Earth gets more protection and the Jaffa get a safe harbor from which they can operate. Of course, they'd have to promise something like not drawing too much attention to Earth, but really, hiding a Ha'tak can't be any worse than SG-1 killing a single Goa'uld or a System Lord."

Jacob felt Selmak's approval of Buffy's idea and the friendly affection the symbiote had for his clever grandchild. "I believe that to be a wisest move that would further improve our alliance and the safety of Earth, while helping all of us. I am certain the Tok'ra council would approve of sending one or two more scientists to assist in this, if the SGC will promise to share its results on researching Anubis' technology and database with us," Selmak said.

Jack smiled and said, "I'm not here, officially, but I'm sure we can get the Pentagon or the White House to really like this little suggestion. In fact, I'm sure they'll jump at the chance of making the alliance stronger. I can't speak for the Asgard and their treaty, though. I suck at 'treaty-speak' so I don't know if they'll go for it. What do ya say we move this party back to Earth and have the boys in Diplomacy bang out the details?"

"A wise suggestion, O'Neill. Here, Anubis may attack at any moment," Teal'c agreed.

"Let's go, then," Jack said and they all headed for their ships.

------------------

"What about this base, are you just gonna leave it here for Anubitch?" Buffy said, personally liking her new nickname for the supposedly over-the-top Goa'uld arch-villain.

"Heh. No, your granddad set the reactor to super-productive mode," Jack commented.

"So, boooooom," she said.

"Indeed, Buffy," Teal'c replied as their little transport cleared the atmosphere.

"Neat," Buffy replied. She wandered over and looked out over the small fleet of ships that flew at their side. She felt humbled that men had given their lives to free her, even though they had never known her. She felt that she owed the Jaffa something. Her granddad and the Tok'ra were on the Ha'tak following the fleet, helping the Jaffa that had joined them aboard to fly the ship in the face of any unexpected surprises. There was also all the other things the humans hadn't done and had done to her during her stay in this universe. It had been the Jaffa and the Tok'ra that had saved her. Politics had kept the SGC from doing what needed to be done..

Buffy looked back towards her mom and Jack, who were checking out their supplies and supposedly trying to make something edible out of their field rations. Buffy didn't want to go back there, because the chemistry and suppressed emotions vibrating between them were annoying her a little. Air Force rules, which made a sort of sense in many situations, prevented her mom's happiness, which made Buffy -- in an admittedly egotistical way -- consider the rules to be bad rules. There was also the fact that going back there would sooner or later devolve into talk about her and her oh-so-new personality, which she herself was still unsure of.

Rules: that was another part of the reason she was not going back there. Her mom and Jack would distract her from thinking things through, while up here Teal'c was content to just fly the ship, unless she actually started a conversation. Jack had said things that day that were slowly germinating to a plan in her mind. Buffy wasn't all that sure about the idea she had gotten, but it made a kind of sense. It was also fraught with danger -- not of a 'do-or-die' kind, but of a 'life changing forever' kind. First of all, she needed to secure the help of their pilot, though.

------------------

"What do you think about all those Jaffa she...?" Sam stopped, at a loss as to what word to choose.

"Killed? Slew? I don't know. Buffy did no different than you or I would've done in that situation. Okay, maybe I wouldn't have killed my way to the head honcho -- I'd have gone for the gate instead, -- but I guess she was running on some high-octane rage," Jack replied, while opening and sniffing one of their ration packs.

"Seriously, Carter, we need to get Hammond to approve us getting rations from somewhere other than the US military. I tried some of the stuff some of the Europeans give their troops when I was overseas, and some of them get stuff I'd kill for," Jack groused.

"Ok, I kinda like them. Not to the degree that I'd choose them over a better meal. But as rations they're not too bad. Sir, about Buffy, you don't have to worry. I think even with her old memories she's still our... my Buffy," she explained, hoping Jack wouldn't reject Buffy just because she had changed again. Of course, she hoped even harder that Buffy wouldn't reject her.

"What're ya talking about, Carter? I'm not worried. Me and Buffy already talked about it. We're good. Are you sure you're alright?" Jack asked.

Sam studied Jack for a moment, unable to determine if that was true or not. Sam realized that maybe she wasn't alright. Maybe that was why she was telling everyone else to accept Buffy. She had some sort of hang-up, and she couldn't put her finger on it. "Sir, I'm not sure. I guess I am afraid she might have become an entirely different person. Someone I don't always know. Someone who doesn't want... want me as her mother," she admitted to Jack and herself.

"That'd never happen. Seriously, look at that kid's eyes. Sure, she's got a real mess of stuff in her head. But she was always part grown-up inside. So now she is just an even more mature 16, and it'll be tough for a while -- maybe she'll even feel alienated from us -- but we just have to hang in there. And Carter, remember: as long as you care about her and ask yourself these kind of questions, you're at least on the right path," Jack explained.

Sam looked around, realizing too late she was looking to see if anyone was listening or watching, as she said, "Thanks, Jack." She still wondered though, with or without Jack's approval. Maybe time was all they needed, but then in time it could all go wrong, too.

Jack smiled but said nothing in reply. Buffy came wandered in as their food looked reasonably ready. "Look what came when the food got ready! You're like a cat, Summers," Jack teased.

Buffy smiled, but didn't reply with her own little comment. Instead, she sat down and studied the both of them. "What is it?" Sam asked.

"I've decided to do something that might upset some people on Earth, and you won't like it either. But I have to do it. Otherwise, my life won't mean anything. I have to do this, not because I'm angry with you, or anyone, or want to be ungrateful. Please understand that, before I say anything else. I've decided to ask Teal'c to accept me into the ranks of the Jaffa as one of his warriors," Buffy explained.

Sam's mind raced. What was Buffy doing and what did it mean that she wanted to join the Jaffa? "Why? Don't you want to go the Academy anymore?" she asked. Maybe this was the beginning of the very rejection she feared.

"In a way I do. But for the same reason that I wanted to join the Jaffa. Mom, I wanted to go to the SGC and work with you, fly fighters and protect the Earth. All in good time, I thought. But I don't think I have that kind of time to spare, before something happens you'd need me for. So, I have to take a faster path. Teal'c considers me a trained Jaffa, proven in battle. I might need a bit more training with Goa'uld tech, but that won't take several years. Besides, he and I think that in the name of your alliance more Jaffa need to come and work with the SGC directly. In fact, he said that he'd demand it in the name of the Free Jaffa. And I'd be one of those Jaffa warriors working at the SGC with you guys," Buffy said, revealing her true agenda.

"Buffy, you don't fool me. You want to be at the SGC to protect us... me," Sam countered.

"No, mom, not entirely. Sure, I'd go far, far out of my way to save your life, but I got a hint like a baseball bat to the head while I was regaining my memory. I am a Champion. A chosen warrior. And the last time I was only 15 when I started fighting in a war that had next to no downtime or off-hours. This universe needs me," Buffy replied.

"Now wait a minute, who woke up and decided that you'd be our savior?" Jack said.

"No one, and I'm not. I used to say I'm just a girl, but that was never really true. I might not be a hero, but I am a fighter, someone who'll step in and save all those who can't fight for themselves, even if they don't want me to. I was chosen for a reason, and even here and now that reason holds true. It's who I am," Buffy explained.

"Buffy, you're sixteen. There is no way the General will allow it. Regulations are against it, and well, you're not a Jaffa, either. No one at the Pentagon would buy it. Heck I don't want to buy it, either," Jack countered.

Sam wasn't so sure about that. Teal'c was not just one single Jaffa anymore. All over the galaxy over the last year Jaffa had been overthrowing their masters in his name, and while the Jaffa weren't unified under his leadership, Teal'c and Bra'tac were in control of the largest and most progressive Free Jaffa group, helped along nicely by their fruitful alliance with the Tok'ra and Tau'ri – an alliance to which Teal'c had been smart enough to openly admit, so that none of his political opponents could later use that as a weakness. That meant, in a way, they had a Jaffa head of state in Teal'c, and this was someone who they were allied with even more deeply than with the Russian government. So if he finally started using that status, the Pentagon and the White House would listen. And with the Ha'tak as yet another important bargaining chip, he'd be sure to get Buffy in at the SGC. Sam asked herself if she could live with Buffy already joining them at the base. She had mentally prepared herself for it with Buffy leaving for the Air Force Academy, but this was much sooner and her child was a great deal younger than she liked. Still, a voice in her head told her that in a way Buffy had been involved ever since her child had been stolen from her own universe, and that maybe Buffy was right and there was a higher power that had chosen her daughter to be their helper.

"Oh, they'll accept it. You see, not only will I be one of Teal'c's Jaffa, but if they try to run me out of there or interfere I'll just call my granddad and have the Tok'ra threaten their withdrawal from the alliance, or even call my buddy Thor and let him rattle their chains," Buffy threatened.

"Are you threatening the Earth just so you'd get your way?" Jack said, his voice rising.

"Ok, maybe I'd not go that far, but don't tell them that. Listen, Jack, I'll be a great addition to the team. Jack, I promise. Besides, with my memory restored I'd never survive a day, let alone a career, in the military. I am just mentally wired wrong for obeying orders from people I don't respect. I think I'm used to being my own boss," Buffy admitted.

"Jack, why don't we let Buffy and Teal'c at least try? Buffy would've ended up on the base either way," Sam said, believing it to be true. Even if she didn't exactly like her kid openly admitting to wanting to manipulate the brass to get her way, there was also the feeling in her heart that Buffy had come to this sudden decision because her daughter had been given some sort of hint that it was needed.

"Yeah, and I am sorry for this, but if they turn me down I'm leaving Earth for Chulak . . . for a while, at least," Buffy said, surprising Sam a bit more. She had not expected Buffy to consider truly leaving Earth and her. It really told her that parts of Buffy weren't tied to her anymore. It saddened her.

"You're really sure about this being a good idea, kiddo?" Jack asked.

"I think it's essential. Jack, I promise you won't regret it... I wonder, though, will they force me to renounce my citizenship and civil rights?" Buffy said, giving both of them worried looks.

Sam started thinking about it but knew they couldn't be sure. The politicians and brass involved in the SGC's operation didn't like getting pushed around and they might decide to be petty and not even allow Buffy to go off base, as if she was to be considered legally as having the same status as Teal'c did. However, a part of her doubted that General Hammond would let conditions like that exist for long, and Sam was sure she'd fight any move to have Buffy declared an alien. She'd fight to have Buffy stay her daughter. In a way, maybe that could allow Buffy a form of dual citizenship, both American and Jaffa by adoption.

"I don't think they will. Security is even thinking about allowing Teal'c off-base accommodations, now that he hasn't got Junior anymore," Jack replied. Sam hadn't known about this, but then administration was more Jack's beat than hers.

"Your granddad is welcome on Earth as long as he tells everyone where he's going and why," Sam said.

"Not really the best example, Mom. Granddad has Selmak in his head; that makes his situation different from mine, again. But I get what you're saying. So this means you won't try to stop me -- I mean, us -- from arranging this?" Buffy asked, which looked like her daughter was seeking her approval.

"I'd feel thousand times better if you were twenty-one rather than sixteen," Jack said.

"Jack, if you count battle experience and the like, I'm more like thirty than sixteen. For nine years I was either the Slayer or the leader of the Slayers on my world. Slayers live with a constant war that goes on every night and many days. I've died twice and prevented the end of my world over and over again. I'm experienced enough. Especially with you, Mom, Teal'c, and everyone else making sure I knew all the basics of this world as well as all that school stuff. I'm sure I can audit classes while I work at the SGC. I might graduate from college at a normal person's age, rather than at twenty or less," Buffy suggested. Sam was happy that Buffy hadn't suddenly given completely up on getting an education, just in case her daughter changed her mind about her life.

"Alright, but you get the pleasure of breaking this to Hammond. Promise me I get to be in the room, though, if some of the other brass is there. I'd like to see their faces when you and Teal'c make them understand that the Jaffa are someone they have to make deals with, not just expect to be there," Jack said, and Sam nodded her approval as well.

"Cool," Buffy smiled brilliantly and ate.

------------------

General Hammond looked at the spare silo not far from the Stargate room and wondered what the gray metallic structure in the floor was. A group of Tok'ra and SGC technicians were puttering about.

"Sir, the Tok'ra have brought a small improvement for the SGC that they wondered if you'd approve," one of the R&D people said.

"What is it?" George said, not liking anyone even starting to think about installing stuff at his base before he gave it his approval.

"It's a ring platform that can be powered by our systems, sir," Sergeant Siler explained, and connected the power to an outlet.

"General Hammond, over the last months our understanding of your power grid has grown and with the help of your scientists we've been able to modify a ring platform so you can activate it when you need to and operate it from your control room. This way it will be possible for you to allow visiting ships in orbit to transport into this secured silo only when you allow it. We've even managed to conceal the matter stream from the view of your population by modulating its effect into the infrared light spectrum," one of the Tok'ra explained.

George thought it over and figured it made sense if they kept the room bolted shut and set up several security measures. It would make visits from their allies easier. And, given the installation of ring platforms on the Prometheus and the upcoming production models of its class, they'd be able to ship things and people to and from orbit, further expanding the value of the SGC, which currently also served as the space command central for Earth's space fleet. "Keep it powered off for now, until we have the security measures set up and it's all been tested, but I approve of the idea," he said and left the spare silo, wondering what they'd think of next.

Sergeant Harriman ran up to him, "Sir, we've just gotten a message off the Subspace communications grid. It appears Teal'c is returning to Earth, bringing along a Ha'tak they've captured. He and Selmak request a discussion on drawing up a formalized alliance treaty between Earth, the Free Jaffa under Teal'c, and the Tok'ra."

"Really," George said, and thought about it. Something had clearly happened during SG-1's search for Buffy and her kidnapper. He hoped everyone was returning with Teal'c, including Buffy. "Were there any other details in the message?"

"No, sir," Walter replied.

"Thank you, Walter. I'll be in my office talking to the Pentagon," he said and headed there.

------------------

"General Hammond just sent word. We can use the ring transport to travel from the mothership to Stargate Command. The Tok'ra installed a ring platform yesterday," Teal'c said.

"It's about time. Now we just need the Asgard transporters, and we'll never have to drive to work again," Jack said.

Sam looked at Buffy, who had seemed focused on something that required deep thinking. It was probably yet another part of her daughter's adaptation to regaining her memories, or it was a sign that Buffy was working on some new plan. Either way, Sam wasn't going to disturb her. There was still so much unsaid and unasked between them, just because she had decided to give Buffy her space.

"I wonder if they've included a description of how it works? I haven't quite cracked that yet. I think that it would even get us closer to understanding how the Stargates work, and maybe even how to make our own," Sam mused out loud.

"Probably not, but I'm sure they've included the user manual." Buffy walked into the cockpit as well.

"So, welcome back to the land of the speaking," Jack said.

"Some of us have to do the thinking," Buffy replied.

"Hell, even I manage to do that without spacing out for nearly an hour," Jack fired back. Sam smiled when Buffy gave him an insulted expression.

"I'd like to see you compose a speech in Goa'uld that sounds remotely like something Teal'c would agree to saying, along with an outline for a treaty. In your case, at least, without mumbling and a few hundred pieces of paper," Buffy said.

"Harsh," Jack said, but didn't look upset at Buffy's putdown.

"I have not asked for a speech, Buffy," Teal'c said, giving her daughter an expectant look.

"I thought since this is at least partly for my benefit that I could take care of the dull stuff. Consider it a rare offer. Usually, Buffy's don't do busy work," Buffy explained with a winsome smile.

Teal'c remained silent for a moment, then said, "You can give me the benefit of your advice before the meeting, but when I am speaking with the Tau'ri you will stay silent. And for future reference, as you are to come under my command, know that I will ask the same of you as I would ask of any of the other warriors loyal to the cause."

Sam for a moment expected Buffy to protest, but her daughter just stared at Teal'c for a moment, blinked, then nodded without saying anything. While it had surprised Buffy, it seemed her daughter thought she could accept being under Teal'c's command.

"I am landing us on the Ha'tak now," Teal'c explained.

------------------

Jonas watched the figures of the other members of SG-1, Jacob and Buffy Carter appear out of the blazing white of the ring transporters.

"Welcome back, SG-1," General Hammond said. "It seems you somehow ended up off-world during your vacation. The Pentagon is going to demand a full accounting on that," the General said, but didn't make it sound like much of a threat. Hammond turned towards Buffy and continued, "I am glad to see you back on Earth safely, Buffy. They're still saving a spot for you in the Summer Training Program for the Academy."

Buffy looked up at General Hammond, and something in her eyes made her look much older than the Buffy Jonas remembered. "I'm sorry, General, but I'll have to go back on my promise to join the Air Force. I got an offer from another party that I liked," she said.

General Hammond looked at Jack immediately.

"Don't look at me, sir. We think she's Goa'uld-free and all that, but I guess Doc Fraiser will have to confirm that."

"What offer is she talking about?" General Hammond asked, as Buffy, Sam and Teal'c were allowed to head for the infirmary for the required check-up.

"Apparently, Teal'c made her a better offer," Jack said and -- as Jonas noted -- not without glee in his voice Jack continued, "Maybe if those morons at the Pentagon hadn't left her to be tortured by a snake, she wouldn't have decided to work for the Jaffa instead."

"Colonel, you're not making much sense. How can she be working for the Jaffa?" General Hammond asked, and Jonas wondered the same thing.

"Just you wait until the treaty negotiations, sir," Jack said, as he too left the room with the General. Jonas decided the situation was better explained at the source and headed for the infirmary instead of following Jack and George, who were heading towards the General's office while talking.

------------------

Jonas waited patiently near the exit of the infirmary, watching as first Teal'c, then Sam, and finally Buffy was examined by Doctor Fraiser, who seemed pretty happy to see Buffy back safely.

"You have to go see Cassie immediately after I'm done with you. She is so afraid you were badly hurt. I think she hasn't slept through a single night since... Oh, god, Buffy what have they done to you?" Janet said, sounding upset as she received an X-ray. Sam ran over and was soon joined by Teal'c as well. Jonas found himself edging closer, too.

"What's wrong, Janet?" Sam asked.

"They've tried infecting her with Goa'uld parasites several times. The concentration of the protein markers and naquadah in her blood is very high. But that's not what worries me," Janet put a sympathetic hand on Buffy's shoulder. It looked like the girl had been prepared or had already known about some of this. "They've also taken one of her ovaries. I also see evidence of at least one or two sacrophagus healings. Have you been feeling angry, hotheaded, or found it hard to empathize with other people?" Janet asked Buffy.

"No more than usual for me," Buffy said.

Janet looked towards Sam, and Jonas noticed Sam's slight nod. It appeared they were accepting that assessment, for now.

"Either way, I would like to keep you here for observation, at least for a day, and also I think we should reschedule your therapist appointments," Janet suggested, and looked towards Sam, who responded by looking at Buffy.

Buffy seemed to wrestle with deciding something in her mind, before she said, "I think that would be a good idea. I kind of regained all my memories of my past, and there are some pretty un-nifty moments in them."

Janet nodded grimly.

After a while everyone left Buffy alone, and Jonas was able to walk over and ask her something in private, "Why did you decide to join the Jaffa? Are you really angry over the lack of rescue attempts?"

Buffy looked up at him, then back down at the bed linen. "No, I just want to help before something happens that you really do need my help for while I'm stuck elsewhere. I don't want to be off at school while you save the world -- especially if I'm supposed to help you do that. God, I understand Dawn so much better now," Buffy added, although Jonas had no idea who or what Dawn was.

"I guess I can understand that," Jonas said, and thought about how he had risked death from brain cancer to see if he was able to predict and prevent the future. In the end, everything had worked out without his help, but he understood the sentiment all too well.

"Mom told me about Abydos. Any news of the people there? Or Daniel?" Buffy asked.

Jonas knew that all the rest of his team were being told this sometime today anyway, so the least he could do was explain it to Buffy. It wasn't bad news -- just a bit twisted. "Abydos was destroyed, but all the Abydonians ascended, somehow," he explained.

"I'm not sure Ascension is all that it's cracked up to be. I also got the complete scoop on Daniel from my mom and Jack," Buffy said.

"There has been no sighting of Doctor Jackson since, but it could just be a question of time," Jonas suggest.

Buffy seemed to think about it, then said, "I don't think so. I knew this guy named Orlin. He made one mistake, and it took hundreds of years and an act of lethal self-sacrifice before the other Ascended forgave him. They're big on punishment."

"Oh, okay," Jonas said and wandered off.

------------------

Sam was sure something was up. The Tok'ra and the Jaffa had been negotiating with the generals and diplomats for nearly two days, and only Teal'c seemed to have remained as calm as always – but then, she'd expect him to remain calm in the face of his imminent death, so that wasn't much of a clue. It wasn't the negotiations that were making her feel suspicious. It was the amount of collusion and closed-door conversations Jack and General Hammond were having, alone or with the visiting generals. Rumors were flying fast and thick at the SGC that anything from the dissolution of the SGC to the disclosure of the project to the public was on the way.

Only the fact that Buffy seemed more or less normal -- if a bit more quick with the pun -- was making her feel better. Of course, since they were both dodging really having those all-important serious talks, Buff's normality could all be facade, as it was with her. Buffy had been asked to stay at the SGC until they cleared her status as a part of the negotiations, but unlike Sam herself, Buffy seemed to be taking the prolonged process with uncanny patience. Sam was, in fact, seeking Buffy out at the moment, and found her daughter reading one of her physics books in her lab.

"Is everything okay?" Sam asked as she noticed the slightly amazed look on Buffy's face.

"I just had a total oh-my-god moment," Buffy replied and put down the book.

"Why?" Sam asked, and decided that the reason she was antsy was the lack of puzzles to crack, so she called up her 'to-do' list on her laptop and looked at the top entry. It was the same as it had been for nearly ten years: 'Figure out how to make a wormhole and then build your own stargate.' She passed it over and took the first feasible one: 'Determine mechanism behind the improvements of an Asgard hyperdrive over a Goa'uld one.' She called up her equations from her studies of both types of drives along with the schematics.

Buffy finally replied, "I used to be an average student before I lost my memory. Sure, I could get great grades and high test scores when I could gather the focus to do it, but most of the time my life was so caught up in my battles that it was pointless. A lot of people actually thought I was a bit dim. I was just uninformed, though, and my life never allowed me to learn more than superficial things. Now I have this ability -- this drive, even -- to focus and think. My 'ah-ha!' moment was when I just figured out the problem the book presented without looking up the answer. I just figured out the proof from what I knew. You know what? I am so grateful to you and all my teachers here. You've believed in me, all along, and I think I have needed someone to do that... So, I guess I wanted to say, thanks for being the best mom I've had in this dimension."

Sam smiled and felt her heart warm a bit, even if Buffy's words didn't really remove all her doubts. But then, that would be hard to do, since she was unsure as to what they were. "So, what's going to happen after you've gotten your position here? Are you gonna stop studying?"

"You think I should? I mean, the Jaffa don't have scientists and universities, but I hope I can still take classes by mail and maybe audit a few in my spare time, like we talked about on the transport. And you know what? It is just too cool to actually be able to understand what everyone is talking about to give that up. Hell, I could even basically understand my over-the-top genius friend back in my dimension, now, if she started techno-babbling. She'd be so proud of me," Buffy said and reminded Sam that Buffy now fully remembered and missed the friends she had lost in her transfer to this dimension.

Sam decided that it would be a good idea to get to know all about those people, so that her daughter could work through her emotions and she could learn about these people who were so important to her daughter. "Why don't you tell me about your life before? All of it that you can remember. I have nothing that I have to do right now, so how about it? Tell me of your first mother. Who was your dad? What were your friends like? And that sister that you love, even if she annoys you?"

"You sure?" Buffy asked.

"Very. I'd really like to know," Sam replied.

Buffy took a breath and started all the way from the beginning. "I guess one of my first important memories is of how my mom and dad brought Dawn home. It never happened, but I still treasure it, true or not..."

------------------

Sam yawned. Getting Buffy's life story -- even in mostly general terms with a few plunges into excruciating detail -- had taken all evening. It hadn't cleared everything up for her, but it had been a beginning she hoped they could both build on. Then, having barely slept five hours, she had been called back to base to help with an energy-supply problem for the new X-305 prototypes they were building from scratch. And now, as she walked towards the Gate room where she had been told to go by the email sent to all personnel on base, she was noticing a lot of other people standing around in the halls. All of the SG teams that were home were lingering around. Several of the department heads, and even Janet and the medical staff, were making a rare visit to the room. Jack and General Hammond were standing at a podium in front of the Stargate.

At first she thought that it was the declaration of the new treaty, but given the lack of Jaffa and Tok'ra in attendance it looked like it was a strictly SGC moment. After a few more minutes General Hammond stepped up to the podium. The Gate room fell silent. Sam finally noticed Buffy, Teal'c and her father observing from the briefing room.

"I have several announcements to make today. First of all, the SGC has, due to external pressures, been reorganized, and now this base has been put in primary command of the Air Force's Space-based assets. This extension of our responsibilities, along with the moving of most of the NORAD activities to Patterson, allows us to mostly take over the entire facility for the SGC. This change also forces the SGC to reorganize internally. I have been put in command of the enlarged operation, and so I will not be able to directly lead what will be only one third of the SGC -- the SGC Field Department -- any longer. This honor is given over to Colonel O'Neill, along with his promotion to Brigadier General. Now we will be divided into several departments: SGC Fleet Department, which will deal with what hopefully will be the growing fleet of Earth starships, satellites and communications; SGC Field Department, which will continue our exploration, diplomacy and intelligence efforts through the Stargate; finally, there is the SGC research department, which will be based out of Area-51 and 52 but commanded from here," General Hammond explained, and paused for the applause, which came immediately upon the news.

Sam smiled, glad for Jack, while her thoughts immediately also focused on what other changes the General had in store for them. It sounded like they had been given an expanded budget and role. She wondered where the money came from.

"As most of you know now, we have, as of last night, signed a strong formal treaty with the Free Jaffa and the Tok'ra, ensuring our continued alliance and support of each other. As a part of this, the Tok'ra scientists that have been helping us will stay on more or less permanently. We will also begin looking for terminal patients with high enough security clearances who might be interested in being joined with the Tok'ra and opening the way for the sharing of intelligence. Meanwhile, the Jaffa have asked that they be allowed to base parts of their fleet in lunar orbit, where they'll help protect Earth in exchange for our support in keeping their fleet functional. Finally, like our Russian allies the Jaffa will be bringing a few warriors to the SGC, who will serve on the SG teams, helping us to deal better with the Jaffa culture and strengthen the bonds between us. To help deal with this, and because of the need for a more flexible structure of operation, the SG team structure will have to be changed. In the future, an SG team will consist of two to five core members, chosen for their military competence, and according to the mission the team will then be upgraded with one or more mission specialists, which can consist of more soldiers, scientists, diplomats, medical personnel, or something else entirely. We hope that by using this structure we will keep our existing tightly trained teams, while improving our use of specialized resources such as our scientists," the General explained.

There was a slight period of murmurs as the General paused, but it died away as he continued, "Finally, there is one last item on my agenda for the day. It has been decided that Major Samantha Carter ... Please step forward, Major," General Hammond said. Sam took a few confused steps up the ramp towards what was now a pair of smiling generals. She noticed the single star on Jack's shoulder.

"Major Samantha Carter, for exceptional service and continued excellence, even during an extended period without contact with your superiors, it has been decided that you should be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel," General Hammond said, while Jack walked over and changed her rank insignia. She was sure that somewhere in a room a floor up her daughter was cheering.

------------------

Buffy let go of her mom, who still seemed shell-shocked by her sudden promotion. She walked over to Jack, who was sitting at the briefing room table looking through some papers. "So, how did they rope you into leading this nerf herd?" Buffy said.

"You've seen too much Star Wars," Jack said without looking up.

"Hello, a Teal'c friend, here! Of course I have," Buffy agreed, then her tone became more serious. "Honestly, Jack, tell me, are you gonna let me work here?" she asked, fearing yet again that Jack would work against her, especially as it looked like he'd be her immediate boss, alongside Teal'c.

Jack looked up. "We got the guys at the Pentagon to swallow it, even if a few of them thought you were betraying them a little by going over on the side of the aliens."

"Bah, for me there are no sides, except the one against the Goa'uld," Buffy said, oversimplifying intentionally.

"Yeah, well, they left one hoop for you to jump through," Jack said.

"Which is?" Buffy asked.

"They want you to complete a series of admission tests, to ensure you're good enough and can work with the SG teams. Stuff like that. But at least you're not alone. All the guys who're going out have to pass it now. I kind of approve. This way, no one gets onto an SG team without belonging there," Jack explained.

Buffy smiled as she thought of a nice little comment for Jack to chew on, "Jack, think of Daniel 7 years ago, and tell me keeping him on Earth would have been a good thing, just once."

"Scoot, Summers," Jack said, after frowning.

"Jack, am I staying or not?" Buffy asked.

"Welcome to the SGC, Buffy Summers," Jack replied and focused on his papers again. He didn't seem super happy about it, but still, she felt it wasn't rejection, either. She refrained from skipping on her way out.

------------------

Anubis looked at the reports of devastation. "This is distressing. Thoth was a powerful ally. Have you determined the identity of his killers?" He turned towards his first prime.

"No, my lord. Your enemies erased their tracks by causing his base to explode. The Jaffa I sent to listen for anyone boasting of their victory have reported nothing. I do not believe one of the System Lords did it," his first prime said.

"True, this is too subtle to be their doing, and too brutal to be the Tok'ra," Anubis mused.

"The Tau'ri," his first prime suggested.

"No, it is too advanced for their primitive methods... Wait, maybe you are right to suspect them. Have my Jaffa ask about their allies amongst the Jaffa, to see if the rebels might know who did this. Tell me the moment you learn anything," he hissed, and gestured for his first prime to leave. He had needed Thoth a little while longer. The worm had been a vile and completely immoral scientist , and especially amongst the Goa'uld it was hard to find any valuable scientists with those qualities. Especially any of real creative caliber. It would slow down his Kull project, and it might even have compromised its secrecy.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: 

"So when are we getting this show on the road?" Buffy asked, and looked around at the mix of soldiers and civilians that were milling around the start area. They had all been tested individually on their basic understanding of military command structures, the rules governing the SGC and gate travel this morning. Buffy expected a passing grade, albeit not a stellar one. It seemed the return and intermingling of her old memories with her new ones had cost her a bit of her focus. Now they were going to be tested in groups, working together to pass through an area guarded by several SG teams. Buffy had overheard that fact from Jack and her mom by accident a few minutes earlier.

There were only a few airmen and two members of the Marine-staffed SG unit around, so Buffy figured the rest were already in the field. Knowing how SG teams were trained and experienced in wilderness combat, tracking, and improvisation, Buffy expected she could get in trouble, depending on how her team was put together. Jack, in a field uniform with his new shiny star on the shoulder, walked up and called out, "Listen up." Major Davis and her mom walked over to stand behind Jack.

"Your task today is to complete a long march. It will be hard and you will be under constant threat of attack. Each team has to complete this exercise as a group. Teams will be assigned randomly by drawing a piece of cloth from that bag," Jack said, and pointed to a bag held by her mom. "You will be given the standard field equipment assigned to your designated posting, as well as a simple aerial photograph with your objective on it. The teams in the field have been assigned stun weaponry, as you will be. The enemy out there will be hunting you to the best of their ability. Finally, each team will be given one piece of information: should you get caught, you must not reveal this information. This exercise ends in 48 hours, or when you reach your objective. Now step up as your name is called."

Buffy wondered why Jack hadn't fired off some wisecrack, but he had seemed a bit more grouchy ever since he had been made general. She hoped his promotion hadn't killed his sense of humor. But then again, she couldn't complain: her mom, Janet and Cassie had all commented on how different she had become. 'Tightly wound,' Cassie had called her last night when they had gone out for a movie. Buffy was aware of that, too, but she still felt confused at times, and it was almost as if she was mourning the loss of her friends and Dawn. She was having a hard time, but the reason for it was also what kept stopping her from opening up and telling her mom about it. She wasn't sure how her mom felt about her old life and friends. Sometimes, a part of her hated that it had all gotten so complicated.

"Buffy Anne Summers Carter," Jack said, and Buffy realized he had called out her name twice. Buffy blushed, before quickly making her way to the front. She felt self-conscious with everyone staring at her. She walked over and got ready to reach into the pouch.

"No," Jack said whispered.

"Miss Carter here is not a regular SG team member, but a mission specialist, and for her special role she requires a challenge. Miss Carter, turn around, please, so everyone can see you," Jack said with a wicked grin to her. Buffy did as she was told.

"Miss Carter here is an infiltration and combat specialist, and because of that and other things, it has been decided that she will not be operating on a regular team. Look carefully at Miss Carter: if you see her again during the next 48 hours and you're not marked as a casualty after the exercise, Miss Carter will be docked in points. Also understand that you're not to render any aid to Miss Carter. She is a rogue element on the field and is not your ally. Miss Carter's orders are to advance to the objective at best speed, taking out any and all opposition she encounters on the way. That includes you people, as well as your enemy. Now I hope you'll all gain something from this little camping trip," Jack said.

Buffy was feeling a bit angry. Sure it would be easier for her to get through the test on her own, but she had actually hoped to meet a few of her future coworkers and gain their trust. Now she'd remain an outsider. "Thanks for singling me out, Jack," Buffy whispered.

"That would be General Jack to you, and don't thank me. The idea came from the Pentagon. They think you're the perfect candidate for an SG team more oriented toward intelligence gathering, and wanted to see if you could do it," Jack replied out of the corner of his mouth, while her mom smoothly took over distributing the cloth strips that identified her enemies.

"I wanted to work with people, not become the Pentagon's Miss Buffy Bond," she said.

"I know that, and you will, but we're still picking the people we want to be infiltration specialists, and I have to say you're a strong candidate. You're smart, speak the language, can survive on your own, and you can't be snaked," Jack replied.

"Jack, I suck at undercover. My solution to information gathering was usually to go to the bad guys' HQ and attack until I was done. Ok, maybe that is oversimplifying things, but seriously, whenever I had to keep my secret identity, it slipped out. Being superhumanly strong is kind of hard to hide in the long run, and worse, I'm not that good an actress, either," she countered.

"No one said you should be doing Tok'ra work, even if I am planning to have them train you and any other people we pick. I want you as an infiltrator, saboteur and all-around general Goa'uld-slayer, not undercover in some Goa'uld court where you'd tear the balls off the first thing that hurt a human or a Jaffa. This is the work, Buffy, and you wanted it," Jack said with finality, "Now, focus. I think your reputation back at the SGC might suffer if these guys stun you at the first whistle, so you'd better get ready."

Buffy was about to retort, but Jack was right. She had to pick up her gear, whatever it was they had picked out for her, get the map, and then figure out how to read it.

"See ya at the finishing line," she told all three officers.

-----------------

"What are those?" Jack asked as he watched Buffy walk towards the start area wearing a forest camouflage uniform, heavy black boots with steel toe caps, a light pack, a heavy pistol in a thigh holster, a Jaffa staff weapon and heavy-looking gloves. She was only face paint and a helmet away from looking like a real soldier, but she was just wearing her hair in a ponytail.

"What?" Carter replied, seemingly less nervous than he had expected from a mom watching a daughter going on a training exercise -- but then, Sam Carter had a special daughter and wasn't really the nervous type to begin with.

"The gloves," he said.

"Oh, combat gloves; they work almost like a set of brass knuckles, but they're also usable for everyday purposes, and Buffy thinks they'll prevent her from scratching up her hands and breaking her nails. She had a manicure with Cassie yesterday, so she asked me to make sure she got to wear them today," Carter explained.

"Figures," he replied, and walked over to the start line. He could have delegated this entire thing to Carter or any one else of his officers, but the SGC was being rebuilt to fit its extended role and roster, and only a few teams were off-world currently, so he had decided to come and view the people who wanted to join his command and judge their fitness himself.

"Ready, Team Green. Go!" Carter called out as she read from a chart. They'd all get released at staggered intervals, finishing with Buffy. Jack watched as team after team -- all of them trained to work together but having never met their team members before -- still seemed off-balance at first. Later on, the teams would be put together using psychological evaluations, a method recommended to him by the Russians, but for now he wanted to see if they could rally, even without being trained together. Besides, all the fake enemies and traps in the field were later on in the march, to give everyone time to get to know one another as they struggled to make the near-impossible objective. Personally, he expected very few actual arrivals at the finish line, but that was all part of the plan.

"Ready, Buffy. Go!" Carter said. Jack watched as the currently very anti-authoritarian Buffy walked away from their camp as if she was going on a stroll: she took the time to wave goodbye and even stopped to pick a flower. He guessed it was just something she felt she had to do. He understood the need behind it. The need to seem in control of one's own life, especially if it felt out of control. He wondered what, if anything, Buffy was hiding behind her behavior. Of course, it could be that it was just how her old personality had been.

-----------------

"Sir, look at this," one of his men said and waved him over. Colonel Walker headed over and studied the footprint. It was from a boot, but a tiny one, one only fit for a girl or small woman.

"Do we have a trail?" he asked. Ronald didn't know Sam Carter very well -- the SG-1 guys kept to themselves a lot of the time -- but he had heard the stories about her daughter and seen the strange kid train with Teal'c, her supposed adoptive relative.

"Yes, it leads towards that fresh water spring and that cave we spotted earlier in our patrol. My guess is that whoever left this is there and taking a rest before moving on," Lieutenant Michaels explained. "Sir, I recommend caution. I've heard that the kid can be pretty devious."

"Buffy Summers, right?" he commented, realizing they both expected the footprint to be hers. They weren't expecting the other teams before late in the night. She had obviously made good time.

"Yeah," Michaels said.

"Agreed, let's proceed with caution. I'd like us to try and snipe her, if possible. Let's not rush anything, but remember that if we get her, the General has promised to pay for a steak dinner for any team who tags her. But then, he boasted that he'd never have to actually do so," Ronald said.

The four-man team moved carefully through the leafy undergrowth of the forest. It took them ten minutes to get to a good position with a view of the spring they had looked for. "Sir, maybe she's moved on," Michaels whispered.

"Sergeant Keogh, see anything?" he asked the trained sniper.

"Nothing, sir . . . Wait, there is something at the mouth of the cave; looks like a Jaffa staff. I think I have a target," his sniper reported.

"When you have a shot, take it," he ordered. Everyone tensed, and the forest seemed to be silent except for the noise of trees and leaves moving in the wind. Walker thought he heard something. He turned his head, and all hell broke loose. Keogh fired the stun blast into the cave. Michaels yelled as he was picked up and tossed into the forest.

Ronald struggled to get his gun around, but before he could, a fist sent him flying into a tree. He got up and saw the blond-haired figure jump impossibly high into the trees. There were two loud bangs, and a stun weapon discharge. There was a shuffle and another shot. All he could see was smoke. The girl had attacked them, gotten off some grenades, and the white residue from the training weapons already marked his entire team as dead. As the smoke faded along with the tears from his slightly irritated eyes, he saw the girl in the distance staring at them -- to see if they were okay, it seemed. She gave him an apologetic look and a wave, before retrieving her staff and leaving. He looked at his team. Just like himself, Lieutenant Michaels had been killed by a grenade, while Keogh and Han had been shot and now lay in the undergrowth. He went over to get them back on their feet, as well as get Han's radio. He needed to report in.

-----------------

Jack smiled into the night. The exercise had gone on for nearly eight hours. They had just gotten the final objective camp set up, and the reports had started flowing in. Buffy had taken out the new Colonel who had taken over for Hernandez in SG-5 -- a nice guy named Walker -- two hours earlier, and according to the latest encounter had made the same sort of mince meat out of SG-3. She was less than four hours from finishing, if she kept up her speed. "She's not in any hurry," Carter commented.

Jack looked at Carter, a bit bewildered by her comment, "She's gonna complete a 36-hour march over rough terrain in a third of the normal time, if she keeps up her pace."

"Jack, she isn't encumbered or wounded. Buffy could have finished by now, if she had been running. I know her limits: we tested them on Vindgloed," Carter explained.

"Really," he replied, not recalling any stories about tests in the stories Carter, Teal'c and Buffy had told, or in the reports Carter had filed.

"Yeah, Thor was curious about her at one point, so he convinced us to let him test her, but his interest didn't last more than a week. Buffy can lift about 1 ton, but when she punches or attacks people that strength varies. It's almost like her strength is slightly variable, depending on the situation she's in, but it is not consciously controlled," Carter explained.

"Sir, we have a report on Team Red: they were caught by SG-5 and are being transferred to the interrogation site," Walter explained.

"Thanks, Walter," he replied. "I'd better go get on the radio with SG-3 and 5," he told Carter and walked away.

"Don't gloat too much," Carter called out as he walked away. "SG-3 were up against my daughter, after all. We expected them to lose."

"Spoilsport," he mumbled.

-----------------

Sam watched Buffy walk out of the night, making nearly no sound. Buffy looked tired and maybe a bit displeased. "Congratulations, Buffy, you've made it," she said.

"Buffy Summers, reporting in: I encountered light resistance, mostly from a branch that tore up my ugly ... errr, I mean 'pretty' new uniform. Oh, and I kicked much ass," Buffy said.

"Captain Maynard, take over here," Sam called out and gestured Buffy towards the APC she and Jack were using as their command vehicle.

"Yes, Colonel," the soldier called out and ran to his post. Sam tried to keep from smiling at the use of her new rank. She had advanced quickly for her age, but given her posting to what was essentially a war-front position she felt like she had earned it.

"Take off all that gear, honey. Did you take care of your feet?" she asked, her mind easily slipping over into mommy mode.

"Uh-huh, I kept them dry and the boots tight. I think I might still get a blister on my right big toe, though," Buffy said and affected the tones of a much younger child.

Sam was thrown for a minute. Was her daughter channeling her younger self and expecting her to help? Or was it the more sarcastic -- even cynical, at times -- older Buffy she was talking to? Even with their continued talks the rift Buffy's old memories had caused hadn't completely disappeared. Sam decided to follow her instincts and care. Then, at least, all Buffy could do was roll her eyes at the extensive mothering. "Let me see?" she asked.

Buffy smiled and sat in the lighted room in the back of the armored vehicle, lifted her foot out of her boots, and peeled off the sock. Sam studied the foot but saw only a small red area on the toe. "It looks okay. It might become a blister, but I doubt it. Your healing will get rid of it soon, if you keep off the foot for an hour or so," Sam caressed the arch of Buffy's foot, making it twitch as she unintentionally tickled her daughter.

"That tickles," Buffy said and pulled her foot back without any real malice in her voice.

"I noticed. So, did everything go okay out there?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I guess. I think I was maybe a bit rough with some of the guys I encountered, but I'm pretty sure no one was seriously hurt. I'm a bit miffed, though. Does this mean you want me to run around on alien planets all alone?" Buffy asked.

Sam felt her stomach hollow out at the very thought, "God, no! This really wasn't our idea. Jack and General Hammond do want to put you into the mission specialist group so you won't be permanently assigned to any specific SG team. Instead, they'll send you out when there is infiltration, or combat work, or we need someone to talk to the Tok'ra or Free Jaffa. They all seem to like you anyway. General Hammond told me that the Pentagon is planning to spend what resources we can spare on helping our allies, because without them we'd be totally alone. Besides, it pays to have friends, and you have a knack for making them with people none of us really think of."

"I can be every bit as annoying to perfect strangers as Jack is, sometimes. A lot of people will hate me the first time they talk to me. Back when I was in my universe, I might have been the leader, but that was more out of habit than any actual ability of mine to lead groups. I was good at planning, but I would never have been the big damn hero, if I hadn't had my friends," Buffy countered.

"Oh, I understand that. But be honest, Buffy: your friends were all special people, and you made friends with them. We don't expect you to be our diplomat. The Tok'ra like you because you made them see the error of their ways on Revanna. The Jaffa like you because you're a warrior. Neither of them expect you to lay down treaties. And neither will we. Just be you, when you're out there. Besides, it's worked for us -- as in 'SG-1' us," she explained.

"Yeah," Buffy agreed and looked out into the night. Sam busied herself packing away what gear her daughter had dumped on the floor.

"Mom, we're not really back to normal are we?" Buffy said.

Sam looked up and noticed the piercing look in her daughter's eyes. "No," she agreed.

"I can't figure out what it is," Buffy said.

"Be honest, you know what it is. I do," Sam suggested.

Buffy looked uncomfortable for a moment, then agreed, "Maybe I do, too."

"It's not simple, is it? You've remembered who you were, all of it. And, well, that makes you different. I keep getting jarred by the differences, even when you're so much like before," Sam said, dreading for a moment how Buffy would react to that revelation.

"I know. It's weird for me, too. I used to take things so much easier. Now, my brain is constantly churning out thoughts, and I have all these feelings, memories and knowledge that weren't there before. I'm younger again. I can't be myself," Buffy paused, and then whispered, "I think I miss being just your Buffy."

"We have to deal with what's in front of us. We'll just have to keep working at it. We both want to stay a family, right?" Sam asked.

Buffy immediately nodded, "I miss it."

"Me too," Sam said. Buffy jumped over and gathered her in a nearly bone-breaking hug.

"Cute. Don't think hugging me will heighten your scores, Summers," Jack said, stepping into view.

"I can't hug you, Jack: old people are too fragile for Buffy hugs," Buffy said, and the hug lasted almost defiantly a few moments longer.

"Carter, why don't you drive the other Carter home? There won't be anyone arriving for another twelve hours, at best, and that's if anyone makes it that far," Jack said.

"Oh, cool -- bed time! I am actually tired for once," Buffy said.

"See you later, sir," Sam said. Soon she drove an already asleep Buffy back to her house. Buffy had been given permission to live with her off-base, even though on paper she was no longer just her daughter but a Jaffa guest on Earth. Sam felt that maybe they'd finally make it. She had been so confused about what Buffy wanted, ever since the return of her memories. Maybe that corner had finally been turned.

-----------------

Nearly a month passed after Buffy had been accepted and cleared for Gate travel. She had yet to step through it on a mission, because of the lull in SGC activity while they rebuilt a large section of the base. Her mom seemed to get even busier by the day, as the mega-brained scientist got involved in the planning of the production series Battle Cruisers that would follow the Prometheus and which were being redesigned to add both Asgard and Tok'ra innovations to the mix. Still, she had been warned that her first mission could be coming any day. Buffy hoped that was a fact -- especially given that her last week had been occupied with a course in the paperwork she had to fill out to get anything done or after she went anywhere. Growing up had never seemed less fun than after that course.

"Summers, I want you in the briefing room in ten minutes!" Jack yelled as he dashed by. Buffy couldn't help smiling: it looked like her wait was finally over. She also didn't mind that Jack called her by her other last name. Carter or Summers: both were fine with her.

"I'll be there!" she yelled back. She watched him disappear at a pace that told her some bureaucrat had to be dogging him with paperwork. Sure enough, one of Hammond's aides walked by, looking like he was searching for something. Appreciating Jack's pain, she pointed in the direction he had gone. It was time Jack paid for the snide comment he had come up with during the weekend, about the pretty, pretty shoes she had bought and shown off for SG-1's visit to her mom's house.

She quickly ate her apple, then headed for the briefing room, which like much of the area around the gate room hadn't been touched by the remodeling of the base. She walked into the room, where her mom and Teal'c sat while Jonas was pacing near the TV screen. It seemed she had been called there to help with an SG-1 mission. _'Very cool,'_ she thought.

Both Jack and General Hammond walked into the room and sat at the table. General Hammond seated himself at the end of the table, Jack at his right hand side. A few moments later Colonel Reynolds and Colonel Walker walked up from the gate control room and went over to sit down as well. "Ok, Mr. Quinn, you've presented it to us earlier. Please tell everyone what you've discovered," General Hammond suggested.

Jonas seemed to weather the sudden interest well, as everyone in the room including Buffy herself focused their attention on him. "Well, yes, I believe I have translated the tablet that we found on Abydos," Jonas said, leading his presentation with the big news.

Buffy saw both Sam and Teal'c give Jonas congratulatory looks and smiles. She did them one better, feeling she also needed to keep up the tradition of smart remarks, as Jack still hadn't come back to full form after his promotion. "So, it really is the Ancient's yellow pages?" she asked.

Jack smiled, while Jonas looked confused for a moment before he said, "I don't think so. Any way, I finally figured it out just a half hour ago. I had translated the tablet wrong, so far. That's why I couldn't figure out where the city was. It wasn't the Lost City, because how could the Ancients lose a city? And why would they then call it 'the Lost City'? They would call it by its name, right?"

"Right," her mom agreed.

"So you discovered a gate address, Jonas Quinn?" Teal'c asked. Buffy had chosen to seat herself next to him, trying to hint at the fact that she was there because of her Jaffa alliance. As she thought about it, she realized she had to convince Teal'c to bring more Jaffa symbols into their uniforms, to remind everyone that they weren't US Air Force officers but Jaffa warriors on loan to the SGC.

"Not exactly. While I was translating the tablet I remembered something I'd read in Doctor Jackson's notes. He had found a reference in the library of the four races referring to Vis Uban, a city that was supposed to become the jewel in the crown of the Ancients' realm, but then the plague hit and the construction was never finished. Four years ago, when General O'Neill had the Ancients' Repository of Knowledge downloaded into his mind, he put in a lot of new Gate addresses into the SGC computer. How many did he put in there, Colonel?" Jonas looked towards her mom.

"Well, enough. We've been sending probes and cataloging them as fast as we can. Anything interesting shows up, the planet goes on the mission list," her mom replied.

"Exactly, and how many have actually had probes sent to them?" Jonas continued, apparently knowing the answer already.

"Less than a quarter," her mom answered.

"And could there have been some sort of order to the gate addresses the General entered into the computer?" Jonas continued smiling, while Buffy thought her mom was beginning to look irritated.

"Maybe," her mom replied.

"Then if Vis Uban wasn't finished by the time the entire Ancient civilization fell, it might be the last one on the list, or at least one of the last ones," Jonas finished with a smile.

"It's sounds a bit maybe-ish," Buffy said.

"We sent a UAV probe before we called this meeting. It spotted ruins that look old enough to be from the Ancients," Jack said, "I've decided to send SG-1, SG-3 and SG-5 to scout the planet. We've decided to bolster SG-1 with Buffy, for now."

Buffy's head was nearly spinning as those words reached her ears. Buffy being under her mom's command was something she had never expected to happen. She wondered if that would work out alright. And maybe, she decided, that was what everyone else was wondering, as well.

"Move out, people," Jack said, but didn't look too happy for a moment. It seemed it was finally dawning on him that he couldn't just go off with SG-1 anymore. It would, after all, be the first mission they went on without him.

-----------------

Buffy secretly liked the fact that she almost felt like gate travel was normal. It had been a part of her new life so long that it didn't feel strange -- even if it seemed to keep its magic, because every time she stepped through it another adventure might await her. She grasped the assault rifle they had told her to bring and moved in behind the SG teams, mimicking their movements. She was still a bit unused to the guns, and her old memories returning kept making her look for a sword, axe or stake half the time.

"Alright. SG-5, secure the area around the gate in case we need to withdraw. SG-3, follow us to those central ruins," her mom ordered.

"Buffy, please scout out the area between the gate and the ruins, then come find us," Teal'c added, as he was her commander.

Buffy nodded. "I'll be back," she said and ducked her head low before jogging off into the undergrowth. She was growing to like walking around in the wilderness, but seven years of life in this universe filled with training, running and hiking, combined with all her memories of an adult life of responsibility as the leader of the Slayers, was just enough to trump the tiny voice of ancient history in her mind, the voice of mallrat Buffy.

After reaching the tree line she let her senses range and she really took in the world around her. It was a lot like a warm version of an English forest. She remembered walking through one, back when they had gone to the old Council estate after Sunnydale. They had met and talked for days about how they'd organize themselves. She had fought with Kennedy, but in the end the entire gang had mostly made up and headed for each of their future posts. She had never been able to get the gang back together before she had gone to Paris, and that was eight years ago. Given the lives they'd led in her former universe, it was less than likely that most of her friends had survived unharmed.

Buffy decided that from where she was she'd circle around the area behind the gate, and head towards the ruins from there. That way, she felt she'd cover more ground. Having patrolled Sunnydale as randomly as possible years ago, she felt she knew how to do that, at least.

Buffy came upon a small river and followed it upstream for a while, when she heard leaves rustling and three people talking in what sounded like English but with a strong accent. Buffy ran over and leaned against a tree, staying out of sight. Three figures, humanoid-looking and dressed in blue-colored clothes, walked into view from the tree line. Buffy spotted a well-worn path that led to a shallow part of the riverbed.

The three people were discussing if they should go back to some sort of main camp or head for another village nearby for dinner. "I think we should go back to our camp: they would be worried if we weren't there for the evening meal," the voice of a man said.

It sounded like someone who was dearly missed.

"Daniel?" Buffy asked, and left her hiding place. The three men turned towards her and looked a bit frightened by her appearance. The leftmost member of the group looked like a carbon copy of Daniel. She had seen or felt nothing of the ascended scientist ever since her return from captivity, and given that Jack and her mom expected that the other Ascended were punishing Daniel for his involvement on Abydos, she had stopped expecting him to show up, at least for a while.

"Do I know you?" the Daniel copy asked.

"Oh, crap, the amnesia strikes again," she said, realizing from the look on his face that Daniel had no idea who she was. Her senses told her that it was him: he felt exactly like he should have. The loss of Daniel had been relegated to the past for her, but she remembered her feelings and grief from long ago, and even with the regaining of her old memories, what she felt made her dash forward. She grabbed Daniel in a hug before he could draw away.

"Oh, Daniel, I missed you, Space Monkey," she whispered. She took a breath, and again the scent she breathed in made it clear to her that it really was the long-lost man who mattered so much to the people central to her life. Those words swirled in her mind, together with all her talks with her mom, Teal'c and Jack.

And that was when she accepted it. That was the fact of her life that had troubled her for months. This wasn't her old life. Her old wounds were there from her old life, along with the memories, and for the most part she had been focused on the negative memories. But if she was honest with herself again, the old wounds were no longer open. She was a new person with a new life, as much as an old one. The feelings she had as she left the involuntary hug with Daniel had finally gelled it in her mind, and she allowed her old life to fade a bit and her new life to regain its importance.

"Space Monkey?" the slightly perplexed man asked.

"Oh, an old joke, I can promise you'll hear about that later. Jeez, Daniel, it is so good to see you. I have to take you to see my mom, right now," Buffy said and grabbed his hand.

"Wait a minute!" Daniel said and tried to wrench loose from her grip.

Buffy let go and turned to face him. "Ok, I don't want to waste too much time on this amnesia business. I promise: confronting the issue is much better than hiding from the past. I should know -- I lost my memory, too, until I got it back."

"Listen, I don't know you. Who are you and where do you come from?" Daniel asked.

"We came from Earth... Through the Chappa'ai. Your name is Daniel Jackson, we all thought you had died, but it seems you ended up here, and am I right you don't remember us, do you?" Buffy blurted.

"He does not remember anything. We found him lying naked in the fields one day. But could you slow down your speech? You are not making sense, woman," one of the other guys said.

Buffy took a breath and put on her most winsome smile, "Please, couldn't we talk about this back at your camp? It's in those ruins over that way, right?" Buffy gestured towards the area where her mom and the rest of the SG people had gone.

"We could. However, we were considering whether to go to another village instead," the same guy continued. She decided to name him Turban Guy, because he wore one.

"Ok, Turban Guy, from what I heard you hadn't decided, and those who came with me are there. They can confirm that I'm not crazy, and I am sure you're thinking that. They will tell you the same that I just did. That man is Daniel Jackson, and we need him to remember his life so that he can help us," Buffy explained.

"Help?" Daniel replied.

"No worries, it's not all death-defying stunts, giant space battles, and firefights with the Jaffa. Sometimes we get to really have fun," she replied with a teasing smile. She noticed Daniel's eyes widened for a moment and his mouth opened, then closed, as if he had been about to say something to correct her. Maybe it wouldn't be too difficult to awaken some of his memories. Feeling even better about an already good day, Buffy convinced the three guys to go with her back to their camp. She was sure that everyone would forgive her for not completing her patrol, in the face of what she had found.

-----------------

Sam didn't want to admit it openly, but leading her first large deployment of SG teams without Jack around was a bit unnerving -- not because of fear, but because she was stepping out of her comfort zone. She was in command, and that meant all the decisions she made had to be just right. They had found a settlement of humans, apparently descended from escaped Goa'uld slaves, in the ruins. Jonas swore that the buildings were of Ancient origin, but they had not spotted anything remotely technological yet.

"Colonel Carter," Teal'c called out. Sam looked at the Jaffa, who pointed with an astounded look on his face towards the entrance area of the plaza the humans had settled. She turned and looked as well. Her mouth fell open. Buffy was leading a man that looked exactly like Daniel towards them.

"Daniel?" she said, completely shocked.

"Look what I found. You think we should keep him?" Buffy said with a blazing white smile on her lips.

"Arrom," Shamda the village elder said. She had just convinced him, a few minutes ago, that they weren't enemies. He had tendency to talk in parables, which was a bit strange.

"Arrom?" Sam asked, trying to recall the word from her Goa'uld lessons.

"Naked one," Buffy said and stopped next to her. The Daniel look-alike stood right in front of her.

"That is how he was found. He lay naked in the field, without clothes or knowledge of his past, after a thunderstorm. We feared he was from one of the other villages and had just been struck by lightning, but none there recognized him, either," Shamda said.

Sam turned towards what she was absolutely sure was Daniel: the eyes, the look, and currently the anger at being confused all so reminded her of him. "Daniel?" she asked again and reached out to touch him. Daniel took her hand before she could reach him. "Daniel, it's me: Sam," she said, but he just dropped her hand and walked off.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c called out, "do you not remember us?"

With a shake of his head Daniel ducked into a nearby tent. Sam turned towards Buffy, "He just showed up?"

"Yeah, he was on a stroll with his friends over there," Buffy said, after securing her rifle on her back, apparently deciding there was no danger on this planet for now.

"Good job," she told her daughter. "Anything else to report?" Sam remembered to ask.

"Nada. There were a few smaller ruins, but this large clump here looks like it was the city. I'd have to find higher ground to see anything further. I saw no suspicious beasties, traces of Jaffa, or Anubis lurking behind a tree," Buffy reported.

Sam smiled and nodded, "Head back through the Gate and tell Jack about Daniel. He'll want to come here if we can't get Daniel to go back with us."

"Sure," Buffy paused in thought, "Don't you think we should try and see if we can find something, and maybe talk more to Daniel, before we get Jack to make a mad dash for the gate?"

Sam thought it over, "Ok, you're reporting this back to Jack, if we can't convince Daniel to come with us today."

"Dealio," Buffy remarked, "So, who gets to take the first jab at Daniel?"

"I'll go," Sam said and headed for the tent, while taking off her hat.

Sam stepped into the gloom of the tent, where Daniel was sitting, staring at the tent wall. "Please leave me alone," Daniel asked.

"Listen, I'm Samantha Carter, and barring some cosmic accident I'm pretty sure you're Daniel Jackson," Sam replied.

"This tent is all I know, these people and this area is all I remember. Before I woke up in that field I might have been someone else, and I might even have been your Daniel Jackson. I've tried to remember. Sometimes I think I've even felt my memories floating right in front of me, just out of reach. But when I try to reach them, there is nothing. I've stopped trying," Daniel explained.

"You're a friend of mine, part of the team I work in. We're called 'SG-1'. We lead extraordinary lives," Sam said.

"Extraordinary lives?" Daniel asked, his eyes showing more interest than before.

"The world we come from by traveling through the Chappa'ai, the Stargate, . . . we're its explorers and guardians. We struggle to keep it safe. You opened the way for us," Sam explained.

"Huh, I did?" Daniel asked.

"You're a scientist, a linguist and archaeologist. On our world, the Stargate had been disabled. We got it back up, powered and ready, but we couldn't figure out how to use it. You did. You opened up the entire galaxy for humanity," Sam paused while she considered her words, and then decided: "But it wasn't all good times. The galaxy is a dangerous place, and we've struggled ever since. A little over a year ago, you seemed to die from severe injuries, but we learned that you had instead been able to survive by ascending to a higher state of being. The last time I saw you, you went to fight against a being named Anubis," she said.

"Anubis?" Daniel asked.

"The most dangerous of the enemies we and all who want to be free in the galaxy share. He is a Goa'uld that attempted to infect that higher state of existence you went to with his evil, but failed. Now he's our problem, and he seems to be growing more powerful by the day. We've been able to stay a step ahead of him, but sooner or later he'll be coming for Earth, and we're not ready to face him or his armies," Sam explained.

"Why am I here now?" Daniel said and looked towards her.

"Why are any of us here? Honestly, I had no idea you were here until my daughter brought you through that city gate. I don't know if you can, but I hope you'll trust me. You're Daniel Jackson. Besides, why else would you be here? The galaxy has thousands of planets; we chose this one by accident. I am sure you were put here for us to find," Sam said, and added in her head that maybe Jonas had even been nudged along to choose this location for Vis Uban.

"So you think a higher power had a hand in putting me here?" Daniel said.

"I think one of the Ascended put you here. I hope they qualify as a higher power, but my daughter says she doesn't think so," Sam replied. Buffy had related her mental experiences during her captivity with Thoth, after a lot of prodding, and although a part of Sam hoped that Buffy hadn't really been made the Chosen One of a different universe, she also trusted Buffy's sanity enough to believe what she had been told.

"That would be the blond girl, who brought me here," Daniel remarked.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't remember her like that. As I said, we struggle, and things have happened that changed her and me a little, although I supposedly look much the same as before," Sam said, thinking about their four year sojourn on Vindgloed.

"What do you want, Samantha Carter?" Daniel asked.

"I want you to consider coming with us. We need you, and we can help you remember. Please, if it fails, we can return you here," she promised, while mentally swearing that they'd get their Daniel back before that would happen.

"I will consider it," Daniel said. Sam nodded and left the tent again.

Outside, Jonas and Teal'c had departed, leaving only Buffy and one of the guys from SG-5, who was watching while Buffy happily chatted in a mix of English and Goa'uld with a few native women, who seemed fascinated by her. Buffy ended the conversation politely and walked over.

"Teal'c and Jonas went off to help look for anything useful in the ruins. Jonas told me to tell you that he's found texts that confirm this is Vis Uban. So, what did Daniel say?" Buffy asked.

"He is a lot more closed off than I remember Daniel being. I don't doubt it's him, though," Sam replied.

"It's hard not remembering things. I remember how lost I felt. But you were always there to listen and make sure I was okay. I am grateful that you're my mom, okay? I don't think I tell you enough how much I love you, so there. I love you so much," Buffy said.

Sam felt her heart warm for a moment, then looked back at the tent, "I don't know if I convinced him."

"Teal'c didn't give me any orders. I could go in and try talking to him," Buffy offered.

"Tag. You're it," Sam said and caressed Buffy's chin before her daughter went into the tent.

-----------------

"Can I come in?" Buffy asked, and studied Daniel. He had gathered his belongings, but he still looked unsure and maybe even a bit lost.

"Sure," Daniel said and looked up at her. "What was your name again?" he asked.

"Buffy Anne Summers Carter, but you usually called me Buffy," she replied, "So why're you still sitting here in the dark? When I had lost my memories, I jumped at the first chance I got at finding out who I had been before."

"Yeah, well, I-I . . .," Daniel stammered.

"I don't understand why you're not, like, totally dying to know all about who you are," Buffy said.

"I am... And I'm not," he answered.

"You're afraid of what you'd find out. I can totally relate. After I found out a little bit, I decided in my own head that I didn't want to know more about myself. I was afraid that I might've been a really bad person. But now that I have my memories back, I think I am getting that I was just a person, with good and bad in me, like other people. You can't tell anyone this, but I am beginning to like who I was and am, no matter how arrogant people think that makes me," Buffy said.

"So, you've tried this," Daniel said, his voice carrying the hints of the curiosity that Buffy had always admired in her friend.

"Yeah, and I am okay. You don't have to be afraid of who you were, or that you don't want to be that person. I was afraid, too, in the beginning, but I understand now that it was just natural. I mean, what if I had been some horrible person? Which was a real possibility. But you don't have to be afraid. I know all about you, and you've got nothing to be afraid of," Buffy explained.

"Really?" Daniel said, sounding hopeful and even more curious.

"Look, you were... you are brilliant. One of the most caring, compassionate and driven people I've ever known. You're the kind of guy that will do anything to help another person, even give your own life for them. You always went for diplomacy and reason before violence. I admire that. I'd even say you had a gift for making the people around you better persons. When we thought we lost you, everyone at the entire place where we work mourned you. Now, that can't be a bad person to remember," Buffy said.

"What kind of person did you find after you remembered?" he asked.

"Just a girl," Buffy said, but couldn't help smiling mysteriously.

"Please come back with us. Then we can show you who you are, rather than just telling you," Buffy asked.

"I'll think about it," Daniel promised. Buffy studied Daniel and watched his eyes looking at his possessions more decisively. She felt sure he'd come. She got up and started leaving.

"Buffy?" Daniel asked. She stopped and turned around, studying him. "Thank you." Daniel said. Buffy just smiled and left.

-----------------

Sam watched a smiling Buffy walking over. She had hoped her daughter's undeniable charm would work on the amnesiac Daniel, and from Buffy's expression it must have done. Teal'c and Jonas came walking out of an alley.

"We sent up another UAV," Jonas reported.

"The ruins are quite extensive," Teal'c added. Sam nodded. "What of Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c said.

"He's going home," Daniel said and came walking out of the tent. Sam and Buffy smiled at each other.

-----------------

Jack studied the Stargate and wondered why Carter had asked for permission for SG-1's return but that the exploration of the ruins should continue. She had been deliberately vague in her radioed report. He was expecting some sort of surprise. The surface of the gate rippled. Buffy and Teal'c walked out of the event horizon, Buffy talking and Teal'c listening as was so often the case with those two. Then came Jonas, and finally Sam stepped through the gate with another person. Jack felt his jaw drop; then his surprised expression became a wide grin.

He walked up the ramp quickly and grabbed his old friend in a bear hug. Then, as he released a surprised-looking Daniel, he said, "Welcome home, Space monkey."

Behind him he heard Jonas groan as Buffy said, "You owe me one unspecified favor, Jonas."

"Why did I bet you?" Jonas moaned in the background.

"I believe that was a sucker bet, Jonas Quinn," Teal'c agreed.

"You didn't warn me," Jonas said.

"Buffy is Jaffa -- I will not stand in the way of her good fortune," Teal'c replied.

"Who are you?" Daniel asked.

"Buddy, it's me: Jack," he said and cast a glance at Carter, who was shaking her head.

"Amnesia?" Jack asked.

"Yup," Buffy replied from the bottom of the ramp.

"Let's get you all checked out by the doctors," Jack said, and the team handed over their weapons and headed for the exit, including a slightly overwhelmed-seeming Daniel. "So, you don't remember me at all?" Jack asked.

"No," Daniel said, looking uncomfortable.

"It'll come back to you. Just don't take as long as Summers did," Jack said, which in turn made Buffy roll her eyes at him.

"By the way, you don't remember this, but you owe me, like, 50 bucks," Jack said as they left the gate room.

-----------------

"Well, sir, he's in perfect health, except for one small exception," Janet said and handed Daniel his glasses. Sam watched as he was at once impressed and bewildered when he put them on.

"Wow, what a difference!" Daniel said.

"You recognize me now?" Jack asked.

"Was your hair always like that?" Daniel replied. Sam saw Buffy grin, and she tried to hide one, as well. Jack's hair had gone completely gray over the last years.

"What way?" Jack asked and gave all of them a warning glance.

"Never mind," Daniel quickly said. Sam moved off. She considered if she should return to the planet right away, or if she'd have enough time to have a look at the results of the engine test-run the research department had done on the X-305 earlier in the morning. They were testing a few Tok'ra-suggested improvements, before gearing up for production. Just a week earlier, the Pentagon had approved the F-302 for production and deployment. They were going to produce 48 of the F-302 within the year, and the final plan was for hundreds of each model to be produced before the next design cycle.

Sam noticed Buffy and Janet talking about Buffy's first time on an official mission. Sam had to admit her daughter had done well in the field, although this time around it had been a simple and uneventful recon operation. She had read the ideas the Pentagon had for the infiltration people, and she wasn't sure she liked the level of danger her daughter would be in, but a voice in her head told her it was only natural.

-----------------

Buffy had made a return trip to Vis Uban to help with the natives and arrived back at the SGC late in the night, so she had slept on the base. Now, as she shuffled into the new and bigger cafeteria, she found Daniel sitting there eating, together with Teal'c. "Hi, guys," she said as she sat down with her tray.

"Daniel Jackson recalled his wife last night," Teal'c confided in her.

"Hey! Congratulations, Daniel. I never met her, but I think I would have liked her," Buffy said.

"It's a good thing," Daniel agreed.

"And it's confirmation," Buffy added. Daniel nodded.

-----------------

Buffy had been called to this conference blind. They had been scouting the ruins of Vis Uban for nearly five days, and they had found nothing. She guessed this had to be the capitulation declaration from the archeology department. There would be no superweapons for Earth's defense. Jonas had been talking about the ruins and the things they had learned about Ancient social structures and life, but she could see on the faces of Jack and George that neither had patience for a lot more of this from Jonas.

"At this point. we believe we've mapped the full extent of the ruins," Jonas said.

"And there were no big space guns, planetary shields, or anything cool to be found," Buffy said, ignoring the fact that it hadn't been her turn to speak.

"We've only completed our preliminary analysis, but . . . ," Jonas paused as Daniel was guided into the conference room by a guard.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said, but Buffy knew he hadn't been invited.

"Daniel, you're not ready for this, yet. Besides you haven't been given clearance for this, yet, either," Jack said.

"The guard mentioned that. But listen, guys, I felt I needed to be here, and I will remember everything faster if I could help out. Look, I can't give you a solid reason, but I really feel I should be here," Daniel said.

Jack and George looked at each other, then George nodded. "Good enough," Jack agreed, and pointed at an empty chair.

"Besides, who could I tell? I mean, I don't know anybody but you," Daniel reasoned.

"Good one," Jack nodded, and looked back at Jonas.

"Thanks, Jim," Daniel said, but Buffy noticed from the look in his eyes that it had been a joke, not a mistake. Jack gave Daniel a look and probably saw the same thing, since the general only smirked.

"Oh, so . . . there are extensive writings that we have recorded -- all of them in the oldest Ancient dialect known to us. We have yet to translate them, but so far we've found no indication of any power sources, weapons or items of use. The original name of the place is really Vis Uban, which translates to 'Place of Great Power', but there is no indication that there are any means there of defeating Anubis," Jonas concluded.

Buffy noticed Daniel had been studying the brief and the stone tablet which Jonas had brought to the meeting again. Daniel looked up and said, "And you're not going to. That is not the Lost City."

"How do you know?" Jack asked.

"Because, Jonas translated 'Lacun' to mean 'of the Lost'," Daniel said.

"Yes, but that was how we found..." Jonas said.

"The wrong place," Daniel finished.

"But your notes -- the translations in them . . . ," Jonas said.

"Were also wrong. I was way off," Daniel admitted.

"Well, how do you know that?" Jonas said, hinting at Daniel's lost memories.

"I can read the tablet easily now. I don't know how, but I look at these notes and I look at the tablet, and it's clear. I was wrong. It really is the Lost City," Daniel explained.

"So, the Ancients lost one of their cities?" her mom said, echoing the disbelief in Buffy's own mind. The Ancients' technology seemed so close to magic that it was hard to imagine them being so . . . careless.

"No, they did not lose it; they made it lost. So that other people that might try to find it couldn't. I'm guessing here that they've camouflaged it, or something," Daniel explained.

"So the lost city is still lost?" Jack said.

"If I understand the tablet correctly, it was the last and greatest collection of Ancient technology that the Ancients assembled before the plague killed them all. It was a gift to the future. The tablet doesn't indicate whose future, though. If someone else had found it, everyone in the galaxy would probably have felt the effects already," Daniel explained. Buffy could see the concept of the city and the alien race of the Ancients really intrigued Daniel.

"You told me to give Anubis the Eye and take that tablet, instead. Now, we're back at square one, with no clue about what to do next," Jack said.

"Anubis is expanding his territory quickly. The Tok'ra and Free Jaffa believe he will come to dominate the entire galaxy within a few years, unless he is stopped. Anubis is a central leader to his armies, and should he fall his empire would disintegrate within days," Teal'c said.

"If I said that, Jack, then I-I hope that it's true, but all I know now is that the place you're searching right now is not it," Daniel explained.

"Right, then were is it?" Jack asked.

"Didn't I just say, 'all I know'?" Daniel asked and looked straight at Buffy. She nodded.

"Everyone, turn away; I want no witnesses," Jack warned, but he didn't do anything else, except make Daniel wince.

"I have an idea," Jonas said all of a sudden.

Everyone, including Buffy, looked at Jonas. "If I understood everything you said on Abydos, Doctor Jackson, then the Ancients tried to send Anubis back to our level of existence. They failed, and now he's trapped in between," Jonas said, obviously thinking out loud.

Buffy looked at Jonas and wondered for a moment what he was on about. Jonas continued, "Then -- and I am just thinking out loud – when you returned to human form, your memories of that time and your knowledge was removed, but you were still able to read this tablet. We know that Anubis seems able to use any form of Ancient technology, and a lot of his advantages over the Goa'uld and us come from that. So if he sees the tablet, he is not gonna make the same mistake I did."

'He wants to make a trap for Anubis' Buffy guessed. A replacement tablet, a few rumors placed by the Jaffa and Tok'ra, Anubis recovers a tablet, and then . . . what? She had no idea what exactly Jonas wanted to do after.

"We make a replica of the tablet. We could change what it says, with your help," Jonas told Daniel.

"Why?" Daniel asked, and Jack agreed.

"Well, I am not sure, but knowing where Anubis is going to be at a given moment must be useful, somehow. Maj... Colonel," Jonas turned towards her mom, who looked a bit taken aback at first, then surprised everyone by saying, "I might have an idea."

-----------------

The days that followed had been intense, with Daniel, Jack, Teal'c, Jonas and her mom running hither and fro, and no one really making it clear what they were up to. Buffy had been off-world once, to slip into a Jaffa town and deliver a small message from Teal'c to someone who could get in touch with another Jaffa she'd never heard of. When she got back, Teal'c had been gone and hadn't returned so far. Then, this morning she had been called into a big conference room, not the one they usually used. She had been watching as the brass from the Pentagon and all the SGC department heads listened to her mom present the plan to take down Anubis. Buffy had taken a seat next to Jonas and Daniel. Jack and Hammond were sitting with a couple of Tok'ra, who looked about as tired as her mom. Her mom pressed the remote, and a new video was shown of Anubis' actual ship.

"As you all know, we've had little success with using Naquadriah to power the small F-302 hyperspace generator. And while new research indicates we'll have the problem solved in time, we can't currently open a stable hyperspace window for any length of time. However, a precise short burst has been theorized and proven in simulations to be possible. This would bypass the mothership's shields and allow a ship to make an attack run," her mom explained.

"If your calculations are incorrect, then what?" Jack asked. He had seemed annoyed all morning. Something about all of this was making him uncomfortable.

"Then the 302 would either bypass the mothership altogether, impact the shields, or worst of all re-emerge within the matter of the ship. But let's not go there, right now," her mom said, sounding very defensive. Buffy guessed that meant her mom and Jack had already discussed the plan and Jack didn't like it.

"Yeah, let's not 'dwell'," Jack muttered.

"Now, uh, according to intelligence provided by the Tok'ra, the power core of Anubis' new weapon has severe cooling issues and requires its own separate cooling system, with a ventilation shaft on the exterior of the ship. If that can be targeted and destroyed while the weapon is powered, the crystals will overheat and be destroyed, along with a majority of the firing mechanism. We believe it will not destroy the ship. However, the damage might spill over into the central power core enough to disrupt regular systems aboard for a short period," her mom explained.

"Where is the shaft, exactly?" Jack asked with a barely disguised glint in his eye.

"As the General has been made aware, we do not know where the shaft is," her mom said. Buffy was getting a bit annoyed with Jack's haranguing of her mom. This was like presentation sabotage.

"Our operatives in Anubis' ranks have been unable to get aboard the new ship, and we have only been able to glean a limited working knowledge of its systems, as Anubis keeps many of his most important records in the Ancients' language and our translators have great trouble translating it all. Anubis protects all his systems with elaborate ciphers in the oldest Ancient dialects. We have been unable to crack them, even with the help of the SGC," Magra, the current main Tok'ra agent at the SGC, explained.

"Which is why Jonas Quinn, Daniel Jackson and an infiltration specialist have to go onto Anubis' ship and access the computer systems. They should be able to translate the information and radio it out," her mom explained.

Buffy leaned forward. She would love to get the position as the combat specialist. Anubis was the Goa'uld behind her torture and was to blame for a lot of badness. She'd relish the chance to show him the error of annoying the Slayer.

"We have devised an injectable substance that will hide operatives from the type of sensors that Anubis uses on his ships. It has proven highly efficient, but only lasts for eight hours," Magra cautioned.

"They'll decipher the codes and relay the location of the target to Major Mitchell, one of the X-302 test pilots who has been seconded to us for this mission, and myself, who will be in a F-302 and who'll then attack the ship," Sam explained.

"No problem, right?" Jack asked.

"Sounds easy to me," Jonas said, and Daniel at her side gave Jack a grim 'thumbs-up'. Buffy studied her mom, hoping to catch a hint at what her role would be.

"Good. Anubis' ship will be destroyed, and we all live to save another day," Jack said in a tone which clearly indicated that was not what would happen.

"As the General is well aware, and as I said, the F-302 attack will not be sufficient to destroy the ship. However, our primary goal is to destroy Anubis' super weapon. It's his decisive advantage, and without it the balance of power between the System Lords and Anubis will become less skewed. Now, we have a second plan that could mean the destruction of Anubis and his ship. Teal'c has sent word that Lord Yu has agreed to field the System Lords' ships against Anubis, provided he comes to Vis Uban's orbit. It might not work out, but we believe -- given shared interests -- the Goa'uld won't betray us, for now," her mom explained.

"Okay, everyone who thinks this is an absolutely insane plan, raise your hand. Come on, be honest," Jack said. Slowly, everyone except Buffy and General Hammond had their hands in the air. Buffy didn't, because she had a feeling that it was the only way to go, and so would not put down a plan just because it was a bit wild. She had created her share of plans based on insane ideas before. She smiled at her mom's raised hand, though.

"Keep them up, people, because the next question is who going to make it happen anyway," General Hammond said, and Buffy noticed Jack looking a bit annoyed for a moment. Jack seemed to have no faith in the plan at all.

"It would take us at least a week to relocate the inhabitants of the ruins," Jonas said, and Buffy nodded. Thankfully, Shamda and his people were travelers by nature and had no problems moving on, if it was to another peaceful place.

"Which will give us time to build a makeshift runway and get the 302 parts through the gate for assembly," her mom explained.

"Then we'll have the Tok'ra plant the fake tablet, and -- with any luck -- lure Anubis to the planet," Jonas said, earning a nod from both her mom and Magra.

"Make it happen, people," General Hammond said, and exited the room, together with most of the other officers, leaving only Buffy and SG-1.

"Look, I realize I wasn't the most supportive voice in the room," Jack said.

"Sir, we all know it's an extreme long-shot for it all to work, but given the problem of the weapon, we have to do this," her mom said.

"Well, my big problem isn't really with all that. Anubis' defeat depends on us trusting a Goa'uld. Doesn't anyone else have a problem with that?" Jack asked.

"Of course, Jack. But, honestly, as mom said, it's not about that: it's about the weapon. Killing Anubis is just the cherry on top," Buffy said.

"Right, just for the record, though: this is the wackiest plan we've ever come up with," Jack said.

"Wackier than strapping an active Stargate to the bottom of the X-302? Wackier than blowing up a sun?" Her mom asked, and Jack nodded every time. Then, as a guy waved him over -- it looked like some sort of blond guy with Major rank insignias -- Jack left.

"What am I doing in all this?" Buffy asked her mom. Jonas and Daniel looked expectantly at her mom.

"You could stay here. Teal'c hasn't left any orders for you, and this is all incredibly dangerous," her mom suggested. Buffy kept silent. "Fine, Jonas asked that you help him and Daniel get around on the mothership safely. This is a request, not an order," her mom said.

"I'm going. Besides, how could I not? These two book-nerds need a combat-geek to help them," Buffy said.

"'Combat-geek?'" her mom inquired.

"Well, I am supposedly a genius at combat, right? And I like it a lot, to the point of getting giddy over seeing a new type of sword. Hence, 'combat-geek,'" Buffy argued.

"Right, well, if you're helping, why don't you go see if the Tok'ra could use a hand with something? Jack said he wanted you to handle them, as you're one of the people they seem to be honest with," her mom suggested.

"And I speak Goa'uld. Or is it 'Tok'ra' when it's them? Ugh, now I gotta think about that, too," Buffy said and left to find Magra.

-----------------

Buffy waited in the ruins. Somewhere nearby, her mom and a pilot with the call-sign 'Shaft' were getting ready to take off and meet Anubis' ship up above. Jack, who had insisted on leading this operation, which was one of the largest coordinated actions by the SGC to date, was probably going crazy at being unable to go up with her mom for this battle. She heard the hum of an arriving matter stream, and a large contingent of Jaffa arrived. They bore the marks of Anubis. She looked across the plaza, to where Daniel and Jonas were hiding. She looked back at SG-5, who were there to open the way for them onto Anubis' ship. She nodded.

SG-5 jumped up, armed with zats, and started firing. There were no staff blasts in return. "Clear!" Colonel Walker called out. Buffy followed Jonas and Daniel to the rings, while the Colonel headed for the lead Jaffa, to activate the rings.

"Thanks, guys," Jonas said.

Buffy was not loving what she had to do next. She took out the Tok'ra stealth substance and took a deep breath, before injecting it. It hurt and felt warm for a moment. She pocketed the injector and leaned back, so that the three stood back-to-back at the center of where the rings would arrive. She readied her weapons.

"Good luck!" Colonel Walker called out, and the rings appeared from above. The white light arrived and whisked them away.


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

The white light faded and they found themselves on a ring platform in a closed-off room with many doors leading out. Buffy knew she had to use her abilities to their fullest from there on in. She focused on listening, managing to tune out Jonas and Daniel as they moved for a door. "Not that one," she said as the pair approached the control panel for one of them.

"Jaffa," she whispered and pointed with her hand towards another door, while trying to recall the incomplete map the Tok'ra had made from their intelligence and shown them on Earth. "This way," she said and pushed the open button.

They looked out into the wide corridor and carefully but quickly headed out. Buffy entered the state where she let the Slayer's senses and instincts guide her towards the goal she envisioned. It was no longer like taking a backseat to something else, as it had been so often in her life before. The Slayer had merged with her, and so it felt more like focusing or concentrating on one single thing, excluding all others, rather than stepping back. She soundlessly glided across the floor, taking point.

----------------

On the bridge of the mothership Herak, Anubis' First Prime, noticed the activation of one set of transporter rings. It was unexpected, as no one he had sent down had signaled their return, and also unlikely, as the last group of his Jaffa had disembarked only a few minutes earlier. It was possibly a minor matter, and so he sent an extra patrol to the level of the ring platform without informing his lord. It was probably nothing, but it could be an attack, and so he decided to be careful.

----------------

Jonas watched Buffy and Daniel carefully. He had been a bit doubtful at first about bringing both these people on such a dangerous mission -- not because he thought them weak, but because he knew how deeply beloved they both were at the SGC. After spending more than a year at the SGC himself, he understood the sentiment. Daniel Jackson had a moral core and philosophical nature which he shared unobtrusively with all around them. He seemed to teach and guide people to greatness of humanitarian thought merely by his presence. And Buffy Carter was a kind of symbol of human power and leadership, the kind of leadership that all nations wished they had. She was like Daniel in being someone people naturally listened to and a person who was both caring and giving, despite her gifted nature which could easily have made her arrogant towards lesser mortals. So he felt responsible for being the one who had needed both of them to come with him because he was inadequate. He had argued with both Jack and Sam for nearly an hour, trying to convince them first off that he could do the translations without Daniel, and then Daniel had joined him in suggesting that the two scholars didn't need a babysitter in the form of Buffy Summers. Neither argument had worked.

Buffy signaled they had to stop and wait. He couldn't hear anything, but he did as she suggested. Down the corridor they heard a door open, then footsteps as Jaffa entered a corridor that crossed with theirs. Everyone tensed. The grip of his zat felt sweaty. The steps of the Jaffa receded in the distance. Buffy waved them forward. Since Colonel Carter and the Major they had recruited for the job were probably already on their way up for their attack run, the little group headed down the corridor, moving as quickly as possible as they headed for what they hoped was a computer terminal. The positions of objects aboard had been approximated by the Tok'ra scientists from experience with Ha'tak construction. "Here," Daniel said and gestured at a small inscription in the wall that indicated a well of knowledge was near. That was a classic Goa'uld euphemism for a computer room.

"Yeah," Buffy said and got down on the floor with Daniel. They got their zats ready.

Jonas pressed the door button and went over to covering their backs. The door barely slid up a few centimeters before he heard Buffy and Daniel firing. Four zat shots rang out, and there were two heavy thumps. He turned and headed inside. Buffy pressed the door close button. Inside, there was a large screen showing many Goa'uld illustrations.

Daniel pressed the button on the computer in front of the screen and tried to access the secure files. Several ancient letters showed up. "Mom said that from what they got at Thoth's base, the Ancient dialect is the same as the one on the tablet," Buffy commented while she kept monitoring the door. Jonas turned on the volume on their radios.

"Ground Control, this is the Rats. We're accessing the computer system now. A launch would be appropriate at this time," he said.

"Roger, Rats. Launch is underway. Advise when status changes. We're handing you over to Airstrike," the voice of Sergeant Harriman explained.

"Rats, this is Airstrike. Stay on this channel," the voice of Sam Carter said over the radio.

"Shh," Buffy said and pointed at the door. It slid open slowly, revealing a pair of feet. Buffy fired rapidly, already moving towards the opening. The two patrolling guards fell, and Buffy kept firing. Before their corpses touched the ground the third shot hit each of them and nothing was left.

Buffy pressed the door close button again and went back to waiting. "We don't have a lot of time before more come. Any patrol should be missed within a few minutes by the deck commander, if they follow normal Jaffa Ha'tak protocols while in orbit over a hostile planet," Buffy explained.

"How do you know that?" Daniel asked, while he studied the Ancient language that now filled the screen.

"Teal'c taught me everything he thought I could use while we were stuck on Vindgloed with the Asgard," Buffy replied.

"Oh, when was that?" Daniel said.

"Uhm, that's actually a bit complicated. I guess you could say it happened while you were away," Buffy replied.

"Shouldn't we disable the door?" Jonas asked.

"Not unless we can help it. It's still our best way to the ring platform. Otherwise, we'd have to go and find another one," Buffy explained. Jonas just nodded and decided to leave these decisions to the girl, as she seemed to know what she was doing. Unlike the rest of SG-1, he wasn't exactly an expert on the girl's past.

Jonas recognized a word on the screen; it translated to something close to 'plan'. "Maybe that one," he said. Daniel looked up at it and smiled while nodding. He marked the entry and the screen changed to more new text.

"Rats, be advised, Airstrike is engaged with enemy Deathgliders and cannot maintain attack run for much longer," Carter's voice reported over the radio.

----------------

"My Lord, the Tau'ri vessel continues to elude our gliders," Herak said.

"Then send another squadron," his lord said. Herak quickly started relaying the orders of his lord, when he noticed the incoming report on his screen. One of his security patrols had discovered intruders on the ship, and a few moments later another report came in from a patrol on the surface, reporting more Tau'ri at a primitive military base on the planet below.

"The squadron has been launched. But my lord, we have discovered Tau'ri intruders on this ship and a base on the planet below," he turned and reported.

"Start the firing sequence; we will destroy the Tau'ri base with the first blast. And show me these intruders," his god ordered.

Herak turned and worked the machine made by his god. He tried to get an image of the room where the intruders had barricaded themselves inside, while the massive power for the weapon built up.

----------------

Someone pressed the door open button, and a Jaffa grenade rolled in. Buffy seemed to have been expecting it and batted it hard back outside before it could go off. She turned away. The characteristic noise and glow of the grenade came from under the door, followed by the noise of several armored figures dropping unconscious. But as soon as they did, the noise of more Jaffa arriving rang out, their armored boots clanging against the deck plating. "There's no end to them," Buffy sighed and went to the control panel. Expertly, she closed and disabled the door controls. She started studying the room.

"That's it; I'm in," Daniel said, and the screen changed to show a lot of holographic data. "This might take a bit longer than expected," he continued, and Jonas gaped at the huge amount of detail and data they'd have to go through.

"We're all kinds of pressed for time, here," Buffy commented from the right side of the room where she was examining something.

"Can't you do a search, or something?" Jonas asked.

"Yeah, google it, or something," Buffy added.

"Search for what? 'Achilles' heel'?" Daniel fired back, sounding a bit irritated. There were noises of banging from the door.

"Sounds like someone is getting their memory back, along with their wit," Jonas commented. Daniel looked a bit puzzled for a moment, then typed something on the keyboard. The screen changed, and a feature was highlighted along with Ancient numerics.

"I got it. Sam, I'm sending you the data... now," Daniel said and recited several numbers over the radio.

"Thanks, got it. Now, get off the ship. Ground Control, this is Airstrike: we're starting our attack run," Colonel Carter's voice said.

"Airstrike, this is Ground Control. We have reason to believe that Anubis' forces have detected our presence on the planet. We're getting ready for a general evacuation and scrubbing of the temporary base. Be advised, no part of the F-302 may fall into enemy hands. On finishing the mission you're commanded to destroy the aircraft and move through the gate at best speed," Jack's voice replied.

"Guys, the ship is powering the big weapon. They're aiming for the Stargate," Daniel said as an information page popped on screen.

"Roger, starting our attack run now," Colonel Carter replied, just as the door started to open.

"Get over here, now! We might get blown up any second," Buffy commanded, while holding a large air vent grate open. She easily tossed both Daniel and Jonas inside, and hopped in herself before anyone saw where they had gone.

----------------

"My Lord, the intruders!" Herak said triumphantly as the image of their three invaders finally came into focus on the viewscreen.

"Those three," his lord yelled, "I want them alive, especially the girl! Now, Herak!"

Herak saluted and quickly turned back to his console. He was tapping in the orders he wanted to relay, when he noticed that the enemy fighter had disappeared, and then suddenly reappeared inside the shield. Quickly, he ordered all batteries to fire, but the tiny ship easily eluded the big turrets.

----------------

"Go!" Buffy yelled. Suddenly, alarms went off and the lights flickered in the corridors they could see through the smaller grates as they crawled along the tight ventilation duct. Buffy figured it meant her mom and the semi-hot pilot they had drafted to help her had done their jobs and, hopefully, were safely away. Now, she and her fellow 'Rats' needed to get off the ship before Teal'c and the Goa'uld swooped in and finished the job.

They scrambled around randomly, all the while hoping that the combination of their own speed and the protection of the Tok'ra chemicals would keep them hidden until they could make their way to the ring platform.

"Wait here," Buffy said as they came up to a grate leading to a small storage room. Buffy quickly moved through the room and opened the door to the corridor. To her amazement and joy, her mind easily recalled the floor-plan of this level of the ship. They weren't far from the ring platform. She dashed down the corridor and looked to the left. The ring room looked unguarded, which meant that it was probably a trap. A few moments' patient listening revealed the sound of several men breathing slowly nearby, while the regular hum of power from the ring mechanism was gone. She quickly went back to the storage room, closing the door behind her.

"What are we waiting for?" Daniel whispered.

"The ring room has become a trap. We should trick them and go up a level or two before heading for a ring room. Daniel, do you remember where the next nearest one is?" Buffy asked.

"I'm not sure it has another on the lower levels -- at least, not one whose location we know for certain. We'd have to go up near Anubis' quarters. Those levels will be a lot more heavily guarded, especially now they know they have us aboard," he replied.

"The glider bays and hangar decks should be two decks above us," Jonas suggested.

"Good idea: we go there, grab a fighter or even an Al'kesh, and blast our way out. I like that plan," Buffy said and opened the grate to the air vents again. She crawled in first, before offering Daniel and then Jonas a hand up.

"We don't have a lot of time. The Goa'uld could hit this pile of crap any moment," Buffy warned.

"Rat team, report in: where are you?" Daniel's radio crackled immediately after he switched it on. Buffy felt a bit annoyed that he'd do that without asking her first.

"Crap! Turn it off, or something; the Jaffa will hear the echo," Buffy hissed.

Daniel fiddled with the volume, then whispered, "Still aboard the mothership. Our path to the ring room has been cut off. We're proceeding to an alternate escape route."

"Be advised: Ground Control and Airstrike are under fire and currently unable to reach the gate. Efforts to break through are proceeding. Our other help never showed, but primary objective was achieved," Buffy recognized the tension in Jack's voice as he spoke.

"We need to hurry," she intoned, and headed for one of the central ventilation shafts that ran through large parts of the ship. It was easy to locate from the rising wind tugging at their clothes.

----------------

"My Lord, the weapon . . . ! Its power source has been destroyed, and the eyes have been shattered. We have not found the intruders yet," he added, knowing that he might have just forfeited his life because of the incompetence of his underlings. Herak swore he'd personally torture to death any of those Tau'ri they caught, after his god was done with them.

"Not good enough! Go down there, yourself. Catch them," his lord ordered.

"Yes, my Lord," Herak turned and went, but stopped in the doorway leading out of the bridge. "My Lord, the battle down below . . . I have ordered our troops to engage the Tau'ri on the planet directly," he explained.

"Good. Now, I want prisoners, Herak," Anubis said. He bowed and again turned to leave.

----------------

"They're still aboard," Jack said to himself and looked towards a BDU-clad Major Davis. "Davis, go with SG-2 and 4. Swing around each the west of the battlefield and move through cover along the river there. You should be able to flank the Jaffa positions near the gate. But be careful. If they pull back too quickly, Anubis might be planning to fire his regular weapons at us from space. We will attack with full force when they're distracted. We have to secure the gate," Jack ordered, as he felt the shockwave of their camp exploding transmitted through the ground. A few moments later, the sound of the explosion roared past. Major Davis saluted him and left with the SG teams.

With a roar, the F-302 passed overhead with a single Deathglider on its tail. It seemed that the pilot they had picked had been as good as his records had indicated. Things hadn't exactly gone as planned, but then when reality met plans, the plans rarely survived unchanged.

"Airstrike, this is Ground Control," Jack said.

"Roger, Ground Control, go ahead," the steady voice of the pilot with the call-sign 'Shaft' replied.

"Airstrike, could you take out that bogey within the next six or seven minutes? I want you to start making attack runs against the gate afterwards, unless I tell you otherwise," Jack asked.

"No problem, sir. Airstrike out," the pilot replied.

"Now, all we need is you guys," Jack said to himself and looked up towards the sky, thinking of the rest of his team all alone amongst an army of Jaffa. He was starting to wonder if taking command had been an even worse decision than he had thought earlier. Still, the brass had insisted, and those parts of his body that were worn down had been thanking him ever since -- although his back was not too happy about all that sitting around.

----------------

"Grab my hand," Buffy said and held her right hand out. With a look of stark fear on his face Daniel jumped towards her, crossing the open shaft that continued for hundreds of yards straight down underneath him. Buffy grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled him up. He was forced to clamber over her and join Jonas in the duct that they hoped would lead them to the hangar deck.

"Go on," she whispered, and Jonas led the way. After a while they heard the noise of a Deathglider and what Daniel swore was the noise of a fighter docking. They found a small grate and looked into what proved to be the lowest deck of the massive hangar bays of the mothership.

"Would you take a look at that?" Buffy whispered, a bit awestruck by the stadium-like room..

"Yup, we should just look for another ring platform instead," Daniel suggested.

"Goddess, no. We could disable this entire ship here and now with all of this," Buffy said.

"What? No! Even with all this firepower around we can't do anything. We can't make all those ships do anything without flying them, and look at all the guards," Daniel protested. Buffy noticed that while more thoughtful for a moment Jonas quickly agreed with Daniel.

"Come on, you heard Jack on the radio: the Goa'uld haven't shown up. Anubis is probably aboard. If we can toast this ship, then he'll go up with it. A chance at either result should at least make us pause and think it over. Besides, I wasn't planning on firing all those lovely weapons. I just want to start an explosion. All those ships have naquadah power plants, and so do all the Tel'tak and Al'kesh they've stored. If we can start a big enough explosion here, it could cripple the ship, or at the very least prevent any sort of pursuit," Buffy explained.

"We'd need some way to open the hangar bay doors," Daniel said and sounded doubtful they could do that.

"They're open," Jonas said from his grate a bit further down the vent.

"Oh," Daniel said with a wince. Buffy smiled at Jonas.

"I am my mother's daughter, Daniel. We Carters know how to make things go boom. I am still in training, so no planets or suns for me yet, but I have to start somewhere," Buffy grinned at the look Daniel sent her at that comment.

"Fine, how do you plan to do it?" Daniel asked.

"I will -- as stealthily as possible -- make my way over to the Deathgliders and turn on all their engines and weapons. Then, when as many as I can get to are running hot, we take one of those two Al'kesh. We head for the bay doors, and I fire its turrets at the hot ships. With a large charge in their system, each Deathglider I hit should explode with sufficient force to reach the next in line, and so on. The entire bay hopefully goes boom, we head for the planet as fast as possible, and ring down from the Al'kesh before this ship's weapons take us out. If by chance the damage we cause is great enough to take this heap of junk out, it's fine; if not, we're still away safely," Buffy said.

"What do we do while you rig all those ships?" Jonas asked.

"How about you go take over that Al'kesh?" Buffy suggested, and waited until she thought none of the Jaffa were looking at the grate. She opened it and squeezed out.

"I guess that's the plan," Daniel whispered, before she was completely out of earshot.

Buffy worried if she could really be as stealthy as she had just claimed she'd be, or as sure of her plan, but she was certain that if they tried to fly away in just a hijacked Deathglider, they'd get shot down. She hadn't told Daniel or Jonas that she was afraid to get caught by Anubis. It hadn't really occurred to her as a possibility when she had accepted the mission, but if Anubis caught her, she'd probably go back to being tortured and repeatedly implanted with parasites to see if they could break her. She and people like her mom and her granddad all thought that Thoth's interest in her had been supported by Anubis. She had never been all that good at admitting to herself and others that she did get afraid at times, fearing that it would destroy other people's belief in her. Buffy climbed up underneath a Jaffa guard, using the backside of steps of the staircase as handholds. It was time to yet again move beyond her fear. A thing she was also good at.

----------------

"They cannot have disappeared. They clearly used the air flow system. I can't believe you didn't follow them in there immediately. Now, go! I said, go!" Herak yelled. One by one the armored warriors worked themselves into the duct, their armor and staffs not fitting that well. He watched the Jaffa clumsily work themselves inside, while all he could think about was the fact that his lord might punish him for the failure of the incompetents in front of him.

"Tek'ma'tae Herak," one of his lieutenants said, saluting as he walked up.

"What?" he demanded.

"The troops on the ground are under heavy fire. They need reinforcements," the lieutenant said.

"No, I want everyone still on board to find the intruders," he said, judging that his lord would not punish him if he had the intruders. The troops on the ground had already been written off once, when they were about to fire the big weapon, so his lord would not mind them perishing. He tried wracking his mind to find out where the intruders were going. He had shut down the rings, so where could they be going? The only other way off was a ship.

"Stop that!" he barked at the hapless Jaffa still squeezing their way into the air duct. "Everyone, follow me. We need to go to the Hangar. NOW!" he screamed and turned.

----------------

They watched for a few minutes as Buffy carefully took out several guards and seemed to stash them in any nearby Deathglider. As the coast got clear enough, Buffy scaled the metal framework that held up the walkways between the many levels of glider storage, and they got out of their hiding place. Daniel knew he had not exactly supported the girl's plan, but as he increasingly got flashbacks of a younger version of her, he kept recalling the protective feelings he had harbored for her younger self and had wanted to stop her taking the insane risks of her plan. Still, she had convinced him -- or rather, them. He looked over at the man who was watching the spectacle with him, equally worried and fascinated.

"We should get going," Daniel said.

"Yeah," Jonas replied. They went down the vent to a bigger grate and crawled out into the hangar.

Carefully, to avoid being seen by the remaining guards, they made their way up a flight of stairs, going up each level with their zats held ready. They came up to the level of the first Al'kesh and saw that there was a single guard left in their path. "Let's get it done," Jonas said and nodded resolutely at him, then charged down the walkway towards the guard.

Daniel covered Jonas as best he could, hoping to make sure no one shot the man in the back. A few hours earlier he would have considered making such a charge stupid, but with every moment they stayed aboard this ship a piece of his memory -- his personality -- flowed back to him. This was something he had done before. Jonas fired his zat at the Jaffa, who still managed to fire off a single blast from his staff before dropping to the ground, covered in the electrical swirls of a zat bolt. Daniel winced as he watched the blast trail off into the hangar and slam into the ceiling high above them.

----------------

'Now, for the difficult one. Three Jaffa, two covering my approach facing the last guy. Shin kick, toss, back-kick the second, move into high kick, then fire zat into second guy's chest, probably dodge first guy, finish him, turn, finish the last one. Right, that's the plan. Now let's see how it really goes,' Buffy thought to herself as she moved towards the only group of Jaffa nearby. Suddenly, a staff blast hammered past from below, along with noises of zat fire. Buffy looked towards the edge of the platform, then over towards the three Jaffa, who were all turning. One of them was opening his mouth, getting ready to scream. But that was no longer her concern: Daniel and Jonas were in combat, her job was to protect them, and now everyone in the huge room had been alerted.

"Gotta boogie," Buffy said, and swung herself over the rail along the edge of the platform, into a full handstand as the word, "Tau'ri!" was yelled somewhere off to her side. As the first staff blast came her way, she flipped over, let go from the rail as her feet started to point down and swiftly fell with her legs pointed straight down. She immediately grabbed the next rail, a story down, swung inwards, making sure her legs were tucked in, and swung nearly back up to another handstand before she let go and rather ungraciously landed on her ass. "Ouch!" she moaned, but got up, running at her best speed for the stairs.

She also noted a very large batch of Jaffa entering the ground floor of the hangar.

----------------

Herak watched his troops deploying around him. He looked up and saw two Jaffa running down a walkway towards the blond female, who was on the move. "Impossible," he said as he saw the female move faster than anyone he had ever seen as she ran for an Al'kesh that looked already powered up. He looked around the hangar again. He might need to send out another group of Deathgliders.

----------------

Daniel watched while Jonas inexpertly tried to activate the Al'kesh they had boarded. "Buffy is coming," he said and pointed towards the walkway where Buffy was dashing down towards them, a couple of Jaffa far behind. Staff blasts buzzed in the air around her -- all coming from below, it seemed.

"She'll be fine," Jonas said after only glancing up.

"How can you...?" Daniel started, until he noticed her inhuman speed, then remembered in a flashback his entire life experience with that girl. "Maybe," he whispered, thinking about the much younger and a lot more lost-seeming child that this near-woman had replaced.

A few moments later, Buffy ran into the cockpit. "I closed the airlock, but I don't know how to lock the thing. So let's get out of here. Jonas, you drive. I have to be in the gunner's seat," she said, and climbed up into the seat above Jonas. Daniel looked up.

Slowly, a bit more lumbering than if they'd had a trained pilot, they set out from their berth

"Suck on this, Anubitch," he heard Buffy mutter to herself -- not with a triumphant look on her face, just a resolute one. Something Anubis had done had affected Buffy deeply, or maybe it was her empathy with all his victims. He could hear the ship's weapons array fire, but all they could see from the pilot seat was outer space and a HUD showing that they had just cleared the hangar bay doors.

----------------

Herak saw the Al'kesh take off and its turret start to turn. He glanced at the many, many gliders and other vessels in the hangar and immediately ran for the nearest corridor entrance, while cursing under his breath.

----------------

Without warning there was a massive impact on the ship, and Daniel was flung against the viewscreen for a moment. He landed on the cold metallic floor, feeling his arm hurt. "That was just perfect," Buffy said, and climbed down from the gunner's seat, "I've set it up for you to use, Jonas. I'll take over flying for now."

"Could we take a look at the damage?" Daniel asked.

"We don't have time for sight-seeing," Buffy said, looking around as if expecting Deathgliders or something worse.

"They're not firing at us," he realized.

"I noticed. Cool! We might have done a bit of damage. Danny, run down and give us a yell when the ring platform controls light up, then we should be in range," Buffy said and steered the ship into what looked like a spiral dive underneath Anubis' ship.

"Where are you going? Most of the Ha'tak and bigger ships have their weapons under-mounted for bombardment," he said.

"And the brains have returned. I'm doing it because that ship is more or less parked exactly over where the ring platform is on the surface. Now, please go and keep an eye out," Buffy suggested.

He ran down to the platform chamber, which reminded him a lot of the storage of a Tel'tak, even the size of the room matching it more or less. He guessed most of the rest of the space on an Al'kesh was taken up by engines, shield generators and weaponry. The controls were already lit. "They're lit!" he yelled back up to the bridge.

"We're coming," Jonas yelled. Daniel felt the ship change course again and stop. Buffy and Jonas came running into the room.

"Hurry," Buffy suggested and pulled out her zat, while they got on the platform. She pressed the button and ran over before the rings came out of the floor. A white flash later, they were back amongst the ruins.

----------------

Herak was burned in several places and he was sure his left arm was broken, but he had a duty to fulfill, and so he walked onto the bridge, awaiting his lord's judgment. "My Lord, the intruders got away and destroyed the hangar on the way out," he said and knelt before his lord's throne.

Anubis rose and walked past him. "This vessel is no longer of any value. Its primary engines have been damaged beyond immediate repair. Order the remaining Jaffa aboard to attack the Tau'ri using what weapons still work and defend this craft with their lives, while my slaves attempt repair. Meanwhile, you will pilot my escape vessel... And Herak, do not fail me like that again," his lord said.

Herak rose, unwilling to show either relief or pain. He forced himself to only feel acceptance and walked over to his console to effectuate his lord's commands.

----------------

Buffy turned around as they arrived, scanning with all her senses for any lingering enemies. "What happened when we were leaving?" Daniel asked.

"I pointed the Al'kesh at Anubis' ship and sent it at its highest speed forward," Buffy replied.

"You're a little destructive," Jonas commented, but looked around as she was doing.

Buffy sensed no enemies nearby and relaxed. "A bit . . . Hey, take that back!" She pretended to pout, trying to look like an upset child. "I take pride in being very destructive. It's practically my purpose in life, my reason to be," Buffy said and smiled. She didn't feel sorry for stopping Anubis. She did feel sorry for any Jaffa aboard, but as Teal'c said, she also couldn't hesitate. They wouldn't. According to him, the Free Jaffa could only try and educate those who were still slaves to their false gods. Buffy felt that maybe a bit more aggressive style of marketing -- such as a few messy Goa'uld executions -- would swing a few more Jaffa to their side, when they noticed their gods weren't that immortal or godlike to begin with. But then again, that

might just be the Slayer side of her personality offering its opinion; that side of her seemed rather nasty whenever it formulated an idea.

"We should head for the gate before Anubis gets creative and blows it to bits," Buffy suggested.

"You think he would do that now?" Jonas asked as they headed out of the ruins.

"I hope not, but if it was me up there, that'd be what I'd do at this point. He has got to be screaming mad," she remarked, without saying she hoped that she had at least managed to get the Goa'uld upset.

They ran for the gate.

The smell of acrid smoke greeted them before they crossed the ridge leading over to the field where the Stargate was placed. They could see the plumes of smoke, but there was no noise of firing guns. They ran over the ridge to see a single SG team and Jack standing next to her mom and the pilot of the F-302. Everyone looked ready to leave. A smoldering wreck of an F-302 lay nearby. For a moment, Buffy felt a chill roll down her spine. She wondered if her mother's ship had been shot down. Then she noticed the parachutes and F-302 ejection pod nearby. They had probably crashed the fighter to protect its secrets.

"Come on, this isn't a camping trip," Jack yelled when he saw them. Buffy, Daniel and Jonas decided to run over the blasted and Jaffa corpse-strewn field. No SGC personnel were left in the field, with all their own dead and wounded having probably been moved through the gate already.

They were nearly at the gate, when a massive bolt of energy thundered into the ruins her team had just left. The ensuing explosion sent a mushroom-like cloud of dust into the air. "Go!" Jack yelled. The next bolt wouldn't be far behind, and the gate was a prime target. Buffy continued straight through the gate, after Daniel and Jonas. Only Jack and her mom were behind her.

She almost stumbled on exiting the gate. "Close the iris," Jack yelled, coming out last. Buffy heard the noise of the iris swirling shut and a thump a few seconds later. The wormhole shut off just after.

"Talk about last minute!" her mom said.

"Yeah, it has been kind of an intense day," Buffy agreed.

"Is this how it always is at the SGC?" Buffy heard that pilot -- his name tag read C. Mitchell -- say. He really was kind of cute, if a good bit older than her. Of course, given her history, he was a lot younger than several of her earlier boyfriends.

"No, sometimes Earth is on the line as well, not just our asses. Debrief in an hour, people. And Buffy, I need you to get me in touch with the Free Jaffa after your medical. We heard and saw nothing of the Goa'uld attack force Teal'c was supposed to bring," Jack said.

"Sure, sir; yes, sir; uh-huh," Buffy said, and as she passed her mom she said with a crooked smile, "I bet you I can get him to yell 'Summers!' at me within a half hour."

Her mom followed her out of the room while saying, "That's a sucker bet, honey. You'd just have to grab a random Airman and kiss him in front of General O'Neill to get him really upset. And that is just one easy option among many."

"Mom!" Buffy said a bit shocked at the suggestion, although she had been contemplating the general yumminess of all those well-trained men in uniform many, many times these last months. It seemed something else had also caught up with her, along with her returned memories.

"What? You're seventeen, practically. It's time for boyfriends, flings, hormones -- you know what I'm talking about," her mom said, still with a teasing smile on her lips.

"Mom, I have to tell you . . . actually, I seem to recall having told you already: Buffy and boys is a weird and long story, full of love, sex, and above all, heartache," she said, lowering her voice.

Her mom looked at her, probably going over the stories she had been told of Buffy's love life with Angel, Spike and Riley. "Mom, I have the hormones. Oh, believe me, I have the hormones! But I also have the memories of my earlier life, and at least that lets me control them," Buffy explained.

"Ah, really? I guess that poster you have in your room and in your locker of Orlando Bloom is just because it's a pretty picture," her mom said with a grin on her lips.

"He's so pretty," Buffy admitted, and couldn't help smiling dreamily as she thought about the picture of that actor. She shook her head to clear it. She looked at her mom and they both laughed.

----------------

"So, your plan pretty much disabled the hangar, and then you hightailed it out of there, right?" Jack asked.

"Short and simple. Next time, we should just insert several sabotage teams, instead of waiting for the Goa'uld to help. Honestly, Anubis' internal security is laughable," Buffy replied.

"I like your thinking," Jack said, when suddenly the alarms blared and the on-duty sergeant announced an unauthorized gate activation. A while later, they were able to greet a tired-looking Teal'c, walking down the ramp towards the assembled group.

"Tek'ma'tae Teal'c," Buffy said and saluted her commander. It was a necessary part of her role as Jaffa warrior. She was beginning to get used to the idea of having the large man as her leader. He was a man of few words, and he often suggested, rather than ordered. Of course, that was all built on the idea than when he did order her, she was expected to obey. So far, that hadn't been a problem, either. Admittedly, having been trained by the guy for several years and having him as a close confidante had helped a lot. Her relationship with Teal'c was a bit like it had been with Giles, except for the parental bond. Giles had more or less ended up her father figure.

"Ba'ja'kakma'te Buffy," Teal'c responded. Buffy fell in behind Teal'c as he headed for Jack. She wasn't exactly the subservient type, but she had herself thought of the plan that had led to her current position, and the least she could do was play her part to the fullest.

"Buddy! Good to see you back," Jack said. "We were just getting around to discussing if we needed to send a rescue party."

"You did not. I bring news. Lord Yu is dying, and so issued the wrong orders to the assembled fleet. I managed to convince his First Prime to give all the ships in the fleet over to Baal, who could not ignore the chance to attack Anubis. We arrived very late, to find his mothership drifting with its engines damaged but most of its weapons working. Unfortunately, Anubis had already left the ship in a large detachable vessel, and so Baal could only destroy it and its technology. He would have captured it if he could, of course, but Anubis' Jaffa fought with honor and would not give up. Anubis will regain his strength soon, but he will not be able to use the weapon on his mothership against us," Teal'c explained as they walked out of the Gateroom. Buffy smiled at the news, but her mind was occupied with the question of whether or not the cloak on Teal'c's armor made him look fruity, and wondering how she'd look in her armor, which Teal'c had told her was being fashioned for her by some of Bra'tac's warriors. She wondered how she'd look, dressed all medieval-style. She was not too happy about the prospect.

"At least the operation was a measured success," Buffy heard her mom say. She nodded, but in her mind another voice was saying that it had also been a demonstration to Anubis that Earth was a more significant threat than he had probably expected, which put the kibosh on any celebrating on her part.

"We should start thinking about keeping a low profile for a little while. Or Anubis' fleet will be in orbit as fast as he can get them here," she suggested.

Jack looked at her for a while. "I think you're starting to get into the right frame of mind for your near future. Thinking all convoluted and stealthy," Jack commented.

"The Tok'ra thing again. Wait a minute: Teal'c, is this really necessary?" Buffy commented.

"Bra'tac and I both believe the Free Jaffa need to understand the Tok'ra better. The warriors we are sending aside from you are not familiar with them and will have the usual prejudices. You are there to help them work together with the Tok'ra. In fact, we have already decided that you will be in command of them. O'Neill has said that the experience will also help with your later tasks here, and I agree with him. You will not be far from us. Most of your training will go on at the Beta site," Teal'c explained.

"Fine, when are you getting rid of me?" she asked.

"Sometime next week. There is a lot of after-action stuff I want handled, first," Jack interjected.

Buffy couldn't help sighing loudly. Writing reports was not really something she considered interesting, especially when they were mostly about retelling deeds done and why she had done them. As far as she was concerned, that was history and she had already moved on. "Well, if I'm to be shipped off Earth and away from any decent, civilized retailers, I have to put in a buffer. I guess it's time for me and Cassie to go shopping again," she said, after Jack and Teal'c headed back to the conference room while she lingered for a moment with her mom.

Her mom didn't so much as wince. "At least you're earning your own money," her mom said.

"How does that work, by the way? I mean, I work for Teal'c -- at least, as far as I understand. The Jaffa are not big with capitalism, so how come I get paid in dollars?" Buffy mused.

"You don't know?" Her mom asked.

"Hence my wondering," she replied, as if it was the most natural thing to wonder about.

"I just thought that maybe Teal'c had told you about it. Teal'c and Bra'tac paid by adding some Naquadah to our war chest. I think the Pentagon is valuing it at about ten times its equivalent weight in platinum. Actually, the Jaffa have been great in helping us set up and run mining operations, with a cut going their way, of course," her mom explained.

"Nice," Buffy said, and wondered how much of those minerals Teal'c and Bra'tac were keeping back for later payments and maybe the later construction of their own ships. Of course, that required Jaffa trained in construction or human help, but she knew when offered the minerals Earth would provide such training easily.

"You think the meeting is gonna go much longer?" Buffy asked as they, too, headed up the stairs to the conference room.

"Shouldn't be much longer. By the way, do you want to go out for dinner tonight?" her mom asked.

Buffy couldn't help smiling, "I'd love to." They went to the back of the conference room, to grab the last free chairs, Buffy sitting next to her mom this time. She leaned her head over to rest on her mom's shoulders. She remembered her acceptance of her life -- both her old life, when she was held captive by Thoth, and her new life, as she had found Daniel again and realized the emotions she felt for everyone seated around the table. And the steady heartbeat she felt through the fabric of her mom's jacket was a pleasant reminder of home to all parts of her now. It was almost enough to make her fall asleep, as she started to really relax. Only a serious effort of will kept her from nodding off as Major Davis reported on the ground battle from his point of view.

----------------

Teal'c felt as though his arm was burning. Buffy had just hit it with her staff. She was already out of his range, giving him a bewildered look. "Something is wrong, isn't it?" she asked and signaled with her position that their fight was at an end.

"Nothing," he replied, trying to push away the thought of past training bouts with his student, whom he had always been able to at least show how to fight, when she wasn't applying her full strength. Now, with his recent loss, that might no longer be possible.

The door to the gym was torn open and an out-of-breath Jonas dashed inside. "You won't believe it. A boy turned up this morning with Jack's credentials. I was just up in holding. I think it might actually be Jack," he said between heavy breaths.


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19:**

Considering that Buffy was Jack's friend and a major part of her considered him another almost-father-figure, it wasn't actually that nice of her to skip, chuckling, down the corridor towards the holding cell, but she couldn't help herself. Her mom and General Hammond had put him in there after they had dragged him in and out of the med bay. She had not caught up with the action earlier because Teal'c, Daniel and Jonas had more or less occupied all Jack's time until now. She walked up to the still-present guard and looked at him. "I need to see our guest. General Hammond's orders," she explained.

"Sure, Miss Carter," the Airman said and admitted her to the room, where an approximately 15-year-old supposed Jack O'Neill was sitting and looking very pissed.

"Come to tease me at last, Summers?" Jack said in a tone that some pretender could not even have dreamed up with years of preparation. Something disturbed her as she studied him, the moment she entered the room. Buffy could wait for the lab results, she could listen to the words of all her friends and her mom swearing this was most likely Jack O'Neill. But she didn't need to. There was something she trusted more than all that, her own instincts, and they told her this wasn't her Jack, not really. It felt like Jack: close, but not entirely him. It was a different feeling than she had with Daniel when he had returned, so it wasn't about memories. It was something else. It could be his de-aging, but she was unsure. Years ago she had realized that the senses Giles had tried so long to teach her about were there for her use; they had been there all along, but she had not been sensitive to them or secure enough in herself to understand them. After they had defeated Adam, she had begun the slow process that had enabled her to use them. It had been truly slow going, though, and while she had made great strides and was now gaining control of them, she found she missed a Giles to make her understand them. In fact, sitting down to tea with Giles was something she would really have liked.

"Hi, Jack," she said and tried to veil her feeling that she was unsure if he was really Jack O'Neill. He had been studying her as she had stood there, thinking, in the doorway.

"You've come to test me too, then," Jack said, and he seemed vulnerable for a moment in a way she had never seen the adult Jack be.

"No, I already know everything," she lied and went over to lounge in a chair. "Besides, I've done my chores for the day -- you know, all that really annoying paperwork you gave me to do," Buffy said.

"All part of procedure," Jack said and smiled, "besides, if I have to do it you do too."

"That's not an argument. Teal'c doesn't have any paperwork to do, and I work for him," she countered.

"Ah, but he's a foreign representative now. We can't have dignitaries do that kind of work, so we decided to delegate it to you," Jack said, but Buffy could see he was joking, "Actually, he does after-action reports just like you. You should see the amount of paperwork your mom needs to do."

"Hello! I have lived with her for years, and except for the spoken diaries when we were on Vindgloed there hasn't been a day where I haven't seen her write something," she replied.

"So, what: you just here to chat, then?" Jack asked and ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

"I wanted to offer a sympathetic ear. I totally get how it is to feel like you're in the wrong body. I've had experiences along those lines. So, has anyone said anything about undoing this?" Buffy studied Jack again to see what he wanted from his expression as she asked.

"Dr. Frasier mumbled something about external experts, but that usually means she's got no clue. There was something about some weird anomaly. At least your mom is heading this up. Carter will do what she can to fix this problem," Jack said.

"That's just who she is. I'm a bit like that, too," she mused.

Jack looked at her for a moment, then said, "If I'm stuck like this, I'll have to give up my job, won't I?"

"Hey, you're a bit young, but look at me: I'm here, too. They might surprise you," Buffy said.

"We're not in the same situation, Buffy. All other matters aside, no one would have accepted you here unless you could do the job better than anyone else. You're physically superhuman, really smart, experienced, and well-liked to begin with. All I've got right now is the body of a kid and my memories of my training. That won't let me stay 'General Jack O'Neill' for more than a few minutes, if they find out this thing is permanent," Jack explained.

"Oh," Buffy said and thought it through. Her faith in the Pentagon had been severely rattled by them writing her off after Thoth grabbed her, but she could see it from their point of view. No matter her claim to the contrary, she was not 'just a girl'. She had lived the life she had and could do things no one else could. It made sense for her to be where she was. If Jack stayed 15 years old, then it would not make sense for them to keep him on at the SGC. Experience or not, for the first several years he would not physically be ready to fill out his older self's shoes.

There was a knock on the door and her mom walked in with a frown on her face. Her mom looked surprised to find Buffy there, but greeted her with a loving smile before facing young Jack. "Dr. Fraiser's latest results confirm what she estimated when you were down there. You seem to be Jack O'Neill physically younger, but with the memories of a much older Jack. She's flying in experts to see if they can figure something out," Her mom told Jack.

"And what am I supposed to do in the meantime, Carter?" Jack asked, sounding really annoyed.

"General Hammond told me that your orders are to wait while we determine what's going on. I was getting a bit hungry, and so I thought I'd take you to the cafeteria. You too, Buffy," her mom said switching into mommy-command mode that nearly made her jump up and run for the cafeteria immediately . . . at least, until she remembered she wasn't 10 anymore.

"Sure, I could use a bite," Jack said.

"No teenage boy would turn down a meal, especially with two hot chicks along," Buffy said.

Jack glared at her for a moment, while her mom fought to not laugh out loud. Buffy continued glibly, "So, have the hormones kicked in yet? I had a friend who swore that when he was your age he got turned on even by linoleum. But then again, he was apt to date demons, so I don't know if it's a general thing. You could enlighten me."

"Please stop talking," Jack said, sounding almost pained as his cheeks flushed, clearly against his will. "Or I'll make sure to arrange for you to be assigned to the Gamma site for a several-year-long rotation. No malls, no new shoes, and definitely nothing fashionable within several lightyears," Jack grumbled.

"Jackie-boy, excuse me for rubbing it in, but I think you couldn't command a fruit fly to change course right now," Buffy teased. She was finding it so hard to stop. Jack was presenting her with the easiest target she had been given for ages. Buffy was quite aware that when Jack was restored -- or found, whichever was the resolution -- either he or karma would punish her. But it was like a drug, she just couldn't stop.

--------------

Sam watched as Jack and Buffy seemed to be competing to be the one to eat the most. Teal'c was also there; he was studying Jack with rare, undisguised interest.

"You could enjoy this less," Jack commented between bites.

"I know, but it's just so hard," Sam blurted out before she realized what she had just said to her commanding officer. "Sir," she quickly added before the glint in Jack's eyes became a reprimand.

"Look, he's kinda cute when he's steaming under his collar," Buffy added. Sam sighed. Buffy had been riding Jack ever since they had met today. It was very deliberate on Buffy's part and a bit meaner than she was used to coming from her daughter. It was as though Buffy was baiting Jack.

"For crying out loud, Summers! Being trapped inside this body is in no way fun. And just keep it up. As soon as I get back behind my desk -- and I will! -- I'll find the most despicable assignment I can and make Teal'c give it to you," Jack swore.

"Indeed?" Teal'c said in a tone that indicated there was not a big chance of that happening.

"Please stop," Sam found herself muttering, not really wanting Jack and Buffy at odds.

"Are you not finding the return of your youth pleasant, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.

"No, I was never a big fan of my teenage years," Jack replied.

"Surely you are experiencing improved vitality?" Teal'c reiterated.

"My vitality was feeling just fine," Jack said, and immediately turned towards Buffy as she opened her mouth and took breath to say something. Jack nearly hissed, "If you say something now, you will regret it."

Buffy dramatically clamped her mouth shut and exhaled through her nose. After a few moments Buffy turned serious as she asked, "Jack, are you sure that something weird hasn't happened to you these last few days?"

Jack studied her daughter for a while as Buffy smiled back, trying to look innocent and sweet. "I don't remember anything out of the ordinary – well, except I had a weird conversation with a Tok'ra about SG-8's problems with the natives on that planet they had just been to. He... the snake anyway... sounded almost depressed about the whole thing. I think the Tok'ra have been feeling their mortality, now that they know for certain that Egeria is dead," Jack explained.

"Well, SG-8 got back alright, and a depressing Tok'ra conversation can't do this – rather, you'd expect it to do the opposite, according to you – so that would mean you got nothing. Huh," Buffy said, suddenly looking thoughtful.

"Well in the meantime, may I make a suggestion? Try enjoying this as much as we are,... Sir," Sam said.

"Yeah, yeah, let's all have fun," Jack said.

"Maybe we should retrace your steps," Daniel said, while walking up.

"Uh, Jack's house when he hasn't had time to clean up? This has even better fun potential than just sitting here making comments," Buffy commented.

"Please, don't let her come," Jack pleaded.

"Sorry, sir. Rank aside, you're currently not in command. General Hammond has put me in command of SG-1 and told me to investigate. And unless she has anything else on her plate Buffy is Teal'c's to command," Sam said and got up. "Besides, Daniel had a good idea there. And we should go."

"Please join us, Buffy," Teal'c said. Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance, while Sam saw her daughter give Jack a teasing smile.

--------------

Buffy was heading to her office to get her jacket, when her mom appeared out of a corridor dressed in her civilian clothes. "Buffy, could I have a word?" her mom asked.

"What's up?" Buffy said, wondering what her mom wanted that would have her sounding so dire.

"Why are you riding Jack so hard? It's not like you," her mom asked.

"Simple: my senses. I feel like it might not be him, after all. I want to think it's him, because I like him, but I keep feeling that something is off," Buffy admitted.

"So, you're baiting him? Trying to get him to blow up in anger so that he'd trip up and make a mistake, in case this is an act," her mom remarked.

"Basically, yeah. I think I'll stop, though. He's already blown up, and nothing happened. If he's a cheat he's better than most," she explained.

"So, you've stopped doubting him, or what?" her mom asked.

"Well I haven't stopped. I trust my senses of these things, you know that. So, I'm gonna go at it with kindness for now. He's gonna need friends, either way. This way, I get to be nice, and if something really is wrong, then I'm there to either hear something or do something," she explained.

"You keep saying you suck at undercover," her mom said.

"I do, but in this case I'm just using certain parts of my charming personality," she replied.

"You say 'charming'; everyone else says..." her mom was stopped by a playful slap on her upper arm. Buffy quickly realized she had again used too much strength, as her mom rubbed the spot she had hit.

"Sorry," she whispered.

Her mom just waved her off and went for the elevator area. "See you topside, but don't be long," her mom said before walking down the corridor Buffy had just come from.

--------------

"Someone needs to call the CDC: I just opened in Jack's fridge," Daniel said.

Buffy watched Jack as Daniel and Teal'c went through his kitchen. Jonas had stayed at the SGC to wait for Jack's medical test results. She could feel that Jack , while slightly annoyed, was no longer that concerned or uncomfortable around them all -- not even when the pair in the kitchen dug through the disgusting things Jack kept in his fridge. She had only been over for official dinners recently, and the place was clearly the home of someone who ate out or ordered in all the time. It had been carefully cleaned the other times, that much was clear now.

Buffy watched her mom retrieve the Chinese food box out of the freezer and take a sniff before wrinkling her nose and heading over to the table with it, "We should have all this sent to the lab for testing."

"You think my food shrunk me to Summers' size?" Jack said.

"Hey," Buffy protested.

"You never know, but honestly I'd be surprised," her mom said, smiling at Jack's jibe. Buffy felt like muttering something angrily. Sure, she was a bit taller than she used to be even in her fully grown stage in the other universe, but she was still petite, and sometimes she felt a bit like back in the old days when everyone dissed her for her size.

Daniel left his post at the fridge door and looked at Jack, who had backed away, allowing her mom and Teal'c to empty the fridge. He stood with his back towards her as she stood in the door to the kitchen. "Is this the last place you remember being, well, you?" Daniel asked.

The boy version of her friend looked around and said, "No, actually. I ate, grabbed a beer and headed for my couch."

"Are you conducting some sort of biological weapons research?" Teal'c asked while withdrawing some sort of glass container with red contents, all of which seemed to have grown a downy sort of hair.

"Hey, come on! That could still be edible, if you scrape the top parts off. It's hard to find salsa that good," Jack complained while Teal'c put the jar with the other things on the kitchen counter. Jack walked over to the fridge and grabbed a beer -- apparently the only beverage he kept around the house, aside from water and the alcohol in the liquor cabinet in the living room. Given all the cereal she had spotted earlier Buffy wondered what Jack poured on that instead of milk every morning. Jack unscrewed the cap of his beer and was about to tip one back when her mom took it from him and put it on the table, next to all the other food and icky stuff from the fridge.

"Oh, for crying out loud! It's just a beer," Jack complained.

"You shouldn't eat or drink anything from the house until we're sure nothing is wrong with it," her mom explained, and went on to ask: "What was the last thing you ate and drank, then?"

"Four cheese burritos I picked up on the way home, some guacamole on the side, and a beer. I watched a bit of TV, then hit the sack. And bingo, I wake up in the morning and didn't have to shave anymore," Jack said.

"So you became younger while you were asleep," her mom mused and looked around, probably wondering where Jack's bedroom was. Buffy bit her lip to keep from telling a joke about Jack, her mom and his bedroom, thinking that in the current context it might fall flat.

"On to the bedroom, then," Daniel said.

"Great," Jack groused.

--------------

"Would you stop that?" Jack said and cast a glance towards her mom as Buffy opened Jack's underwear drawer and found rows upon rows of white boxer shorts.

"White boxers? Jack, you're so military -- just like my mom, in fact. Well of course given that I'm her daughter she now owns more than just white briefs, think 'g'," Buffy teased but was interrupted.

"Buffy!" her mom said, sounding a bit shocked by her revelation. Buffy grinned. She was in a teasing mood; letting that part of herself have free run for an entire day was proving great fun.

"Sorry," she said on noticing the warning in her mom's eyes, and the grin died on her lips. Buffy noticed Jack moving away, both to avoid their conversation and to stop Teal'c who was looking through the knickknacks on a mantle.

"Teal'c," Jack said, making Teal'c turn and smack a lamp off an endtable; it gave off a bright flash of light before the bulb died.

"Whoa!" Jack said, sounding more surprised than an accident should have warranted. Some tone in his voice told her something had happened when the lamp had been smashed. She wondered if it was some sort of sentimental keepsake -- because it was too ugly to be otherwise valuable -- or if it had been something else.

"What is it?" Teal'c asked.

"When the light just now flashed, I saw a vision -- or maybe a memory. I don't know. I was somewhere where there were small green lights. And I saw an Asgard face, but not Thor or anyone else I remember. It was weird, like a flashback," Jack explained.

"Asgard?" Buffy said and looked around at the room. The Asgard easily could have moved Jack out of his room and put him back using their beaming technology, but she didn't understand what reason they could have for wanting to de-age Jack. Sure, they were capable, but they lacked the drive to do so . . . as far as she understood them, anyway.

"Either I just had a flashback to some part of our past adventures with them, or I paid them a little visit last night," Jack said.

"But they wouldn't do that. Sure, they have transported us to their location several times, but they tell us why. They don't just kidnap and change you; that's not typically Asgard," her mom argued.

"I agree with you there, Carter, but I remember what I remember. It's very fuzzy, though," Jack admitted.

"I think we should go back to the SGC," Daniel said.

"Yeah, if the Asgard did it, we won't find anything here. It would all be done in their ship, or somewhere else, anyway," Buffy said.

"Finally! Great, let's go," Jack said and tried to herd them from his bedroom immediately.

--------------

They were all sitting around the conference table. Buffy was looking thoughtful and very focused on Jack. Sam guessed her daughter, who cared deeply about Jack, was a bit more worried than her light-hearted attitude had let on. Daniel got up and paced a bit,

"Jack, when you told me about what you saw, I recalled something the Sociology department here has been thinking about for a while now. This sounds a lot like a UFO abduction. In fact, it sounds like a number of accounts I have read. We have worried several times here if it was some sort of threat, if there were aliens closer to Earth that we were overlooking. We had so far dismissed the Asgard, because their entire attitude towards other cultures is very much about keeping a careful distance, while these abductions have been anything but that -- especially given the number of them. The lights, the loss of time, it all makes sense when you factor in what we know about the Asgard technology, though."

"This you remember, but my birthday you forget?" Jack said.

"Come on, who else gets to have their sweet sixteen twice?" Buffy said.

"16 is not important, unless you're a girl," Jack said icily.

Buffy seemed to go back to watching again.

"This is not consistent with the behavior of the Asgard we have encountered or known. I came to know Thor and his assistants during our isolation on Vindgloed, and they would find kidnapping and memory manipulation abhorrent and criminal," Teal'c said.

"Thor has said they have kept a close eye on the development of Earth for a long time," Sam said, remembering the teaching library they had used to train Buffy while on Vindgloed, "to the point that they have a fairly complete collection of video and text on Earth and from our culture. It was rather current." She looked towards Buffy, who had spent the most time with that database.

"Well, if you consider late fifties current, then... yeah. Thor told me they only went and updated it occasionally, and they sure didn't show me anything that hinted at abductions or suggested any sort fixation on anal probing," Buffy commented.

Jack laughed, and Jonas, Daniel and Teal'c smirked, while Sam admonished, "Language!" -- though she couldn't suppress a grin, for a moment.

"All jokes aside, we're allied with the Asgard. We have established strong ties with them, especially after your sojourn with them, Colonel," General Hammond said with a nod towards her. "The US cannot accept any sort of ally that would do this. We have to find out if this really involves them."

"What could they hope to gain from making O'Neill younger?" Teal'c said.

"Aside from keeping me alive and around longer, I am drawing a blank," Jack said.

"They're not egotistical: I don't think they'd do that to you, General, without asking," Jonas remarked.

"People, we are arguing in circles. We need to come up with a plan to investigate and then solve this," General Hammond said.

"I'd like to follow up on the abduction lead. See if I can find any connections. However, that might involve some investigation in the field... here on Earth," Daniel said.

"Ah, that is no longer a problem. The recent restructuring has given us the ability to make relevant field investigations on U.S. soil, as long as alien forces or possible invasion threats are involved. The thought of an alien power abducting US citizens is enough for me. There will be oversight from the NID, but only bureaucratically. However, if you need to make arrests or compel testimony, we'll go through the NID to the FBI with any evidence. Now, Colonel, don't forget you're running a seminar with Major Mitchell on the F-302 and F-305, so until that's done I am placing Doctor Jackson in command of the investigation. Jack, until you're fit for duty again, you're off the active roster. I'll take over your command until then," General Hammond ordered.

"What am I supposed to do? Sit on my hands while everyone else has to pick up the slack?" Jack complained.

"You could assist Dr. Jackson in his investigation. But Jack, I have to ask you to remain on base for now," General Hammond suggested. Jack didn't seem to like that. Sam made a mental note to ask Buffy to look out for him. Jack might still mentally be Jack, but he sure wasn't physically, and everyone knew Jack had a load of enemies in his past, who might feel obliged to attack him while he was comparatively weak.

--------------

Jack sat next to Buffy, while Teal'c, Jonas and Daniel were going through the information on alien abductions recorded by the Air Force over the years. It looked like there were a lot more nutjobs out there than he had expected. He was feeling antsy and more than a bit mistreated. He couldn't understand why everyone insisted on treating him like he was a boy again: they weren't stupid, and everyone with a half a brain should have been able to tell that he was not some snot-nosed kid. Except he looked like one, he realized, and ran a hand through his hair.

In the background he could hear Teal'c and Daniel discussing the number of incidents that supposedly matched his description of events. He wanted to say 'So, what?' but he didn't. His eyes had fallen on Buffy sitting with her feet propped up on a table, resting comfortably, as though she had waited for others to finish their research a hundred times before. She had closed her eyes and looked more innocent than she had done ever since returning from Vindgloed. He felt a stirring in his body and felt his face blush as he realized what his hormones were doing. Raging as they were, it seemed they had launched him into some sort of crush. It had to be a thing for him. Was it the blond hair of the Carters, or the image of the strong, independent woman so different from his ex-wife that attracted him? "Oh, for crying out loud," he whispered to himself, when he realized he was allowing himself to feel attracted to Carter's daughter. That was like being into someone you had seen grow up, someone who had treated you like almost a father, or at the very least an uncle. That thought thankfully killed any stirrings of his libido, leaving him embarrassed and grateful that Buffy hadn't noticed anything.

"We're going out," Daniel said. Jonas and Teal'c rose to follow him.

Buffy jumped up and looked immediately ready for action. Jack promised himself he'd ask one day why she was so prone to relax completely in Daniel's presence, when she was usually bouncing around the second she had nothing to do. He got up as well.

"Jack, you can't come. We're flying down to Arkansas for an interview. You're supposed to stay on base," Daniel explained.

"Damn it, Daniel," he whined.

"General's orders," Jonas replied and left as well.

"I shall protect them, O'Neill. Buffy, I leave O'Neill under your protection," Teal'c said. Jack was about to protest, but Buffy just saluted her leader and sat back down, suddenly unwilling to let him out of her sight, it seemed.

--------------

Jack was going crazy. Sam was off somewhere topside, lecturing specially selected Air Force instructors and combat pilots along with Major Mitchell on the new additions to the US Air Force arsenal. Daniel, Jonas and Teal'c were off talking to crazy people, and they had been gone for over a day. It seemed that Dr. Frasier constantly wanted to see him, and the only bright spot was that Buffy was usually around, as well. She was in fact the only one who seemed to listen to him when she was there.

Jack was also beginning to think the Airmen acting as Guards around the base had been selected for brawn and seriously not for brains, as they kept questioning who he was, asking him to identify himself over and over again, and barring him from places he had been used to visiting every day when they were still in High School. Still, it was beginning to look like he could settle into some sort of routine -- of course, it was mostly based on playing with his newly acquired gaming console and catching up on old reports.

"How are you?" Buffy asked as she entered his on-base quarters.

"Just peachy: I'm getting another zit, and there is this girl I want to ask out, but I don't think she'll go to prom with me... No, seriously, I am bored and still a kid, so I'm doing as well as I can, I guess," he said.

"Daniel and the others are all back. They're having some sort of meeting with George now," she said.

"Why weren't we invited?" he asked.

"Dunno. We could go ask," she suggested.

"Let's," he agreed, and together they headed off towards General Hammond's new offices.

--------------

They never made it to the General's offices. Carter met them halfway. "Ah, Jack, I need to speak with you," she said. It sounded urgent.

"In here," Buffy suggested, opening to door to an empty conference room. Jack decided she had to have heard no one inside. It had to be really nifty being able to do those things.

They shuffled inside. Buffy stayed at the door leaning against it.

Carter looked at him, and the pity she tried to hide in her eyes warned him that it wasn't good news they had talked about in Hammond's office. "What is it?" he asked.

"Janet just finished reading the analysis from the genetics team. Your test results show that something is happening to you on the cellular level. Basically, your genetic structure is unraveling at an increasing rate. So far, your cells have been able to replicate themselves and repair the damage, but that won't last," Carter explained, her voice carrying her fear and pity clearly now. Jack was surprised to find that Buffy wasn't hugging him or saying something.

"Just say it like it is. None of that science mumbo jumbo right now, Carter," he said.

"You're dying, and there is no cure," she replied.

"I am sorry," Carter offered, but Jack had no idea how he'd reply to that. Instead, he immediately turned and found his plan to storm out obstructed by Buffy still leaning against the door. He loved her like a daughter, yet believed he was willing to attack her just to be allowed to save face at that moment. However, a rational and more in-control part of him also reminded him that Buffy could take Teal'c in fair combat on his best day -- something Jack wasn't sure he could do. He had no choice but to stay.

"What about the Asgard?" Buffy asked, looking past him at her mother.

"Daniel thinks that there really is some sort of Asgard operation that kidnaps humans and tests them. Too many of the stories match on too many details for it not to be something like that," Carter replied as she rounded him, thankfully heading for the door.

"Jack, Janet really wants to see you in the infirmary," Carter said. Buffy moved aside and allowed both of them to leave. Jack wondered if it had been a mistake for Carter to let the girl be taught any thing. She was getting scary good with the entire tactical planning thing, and on top of that they were shipping her off to be taught by both the Tok'ra and Bra'tac as soon as he was back to normal.

--------------

Buffy was feeling a bit depressed. The news about Jack -- first from her mom and then in the infirmary -- had been all bad. Now they were in Jack's conference room. Her granddad had swung by with a Tok'ra offer to help Jack as soon as he was able, but given his history with them it looked unlikely that Jack would accept. They were offering either cryogenic freezing or a symbiote. Jack wasn't going for either, but then neither she nor her mom was surprised by that.

"Can I have five minutes in private to think about this?" Jack asked.

"You can have ten," General Hammond offered. Jack headed for his former -- you could say – office, looking really unhappy. Getting a death sentence would do that to a person, she knew that much.

Everyone got up from the table and walked around. "Hi, Granddad and Selmak," Buffy said and went over to embrace Jacob and Selmak.

"Hi, kid," there was a pause, "It is good to see you again, Buffy. I understand that you will be coming to the Beta site to partake in Tok'ra infiltration training."

"Yeah," she replied.

"You are not looking forward to it," Selmak said and looked bemused.

"Well, I don't really feel like being away from here that long. Jack said it'd be months away from here. Someone might get in trouble," she said, not wanting to admit that she really didn't feel like being away from her mom and SG-1 for that long.

"I thought it was usually you who found trouble," Jacob replied.

"Bah, a myth! Besides, look at Mom and the other guys: they're always in mortal danger," Buffy said.

"True," Jacob agreed.

"We'll go get Jack," Daniel declared, and her mom left with him.

Buffy turned towards Jacob. "So, how are things out there?" she asked.

"Not much better than the last time you asked me that. Given what Daniel has told us about Atlantis, we're looking for anything Ancient that might help. Oh, and after analyzing that data we got when you were freed we're about to send a team undercover into Anubis' main base. A place called Tartarus," Jacob explained.

"Sounds all Greek to me," Buffy said.

Jacob gave her a small grin, then proceeded, "If we can find the weak spot in Tartarus' defenses, or maybe even gain access to Anubis' projects there, we could strike a blow to his war machine he'd be able to feel." Buffy smirked at Jacob's hopeful look.

An alarm blared, and her mom's voice rang out over the speakers: "We have a security breach. Level 25, Guest quarters," she said.

"Jack," Buffy said and immediately turned. She dashed from the room, jumped tumbling and rolling as fast as she could over and around people in her way, heading for an elevator. Jack was leaving, which meant she had to get topside if she was to have any chance of tracking him.

--------------

"We lost both of them," she complained. Sam was not happy. First, Jack made a run for it, and then Buffy disappeared, having last been seen leaving the base on foot. It had been hours since that sighting, and while the security lockdown she had stupidly triggered had caused a search of the base, it had also left them all stranded, while Buffy and Jack had more or less disappeared.

"The Security department have swept the base. Aside from the video of Jack using the emergency escape path and of Buffy jumping the fence, we have no clues yet as to where they went," Jonas said.

"I have notified state and local authorities. With any luck, someone will spot them soon," General Hammond said.

"Sir, I hope you made it clear that they should not attempt to arrest them. If Jack made a run for it from here, he would do the same if the police came too close, and Buffy puts no trust in the police either. If they try anything with her, we might have some difficult questions to answer," she said.

"They have been asked to report it in, not to engage . . . but how it will go in the field I cannot predict," General Hammond said.

Sam heard a door open behind her, and Janet strode in. "There is something you all need to see," she said. Sam noticed her dad coming in after Janet.

--------------

Jack was bordering on flipping mad, but he tried to keep his mood down to seething as the liquor store owner guided him back outside. "Listen, kid, get out of here before I call the cops. It's a school night, for crying out loud," the store clerk said.

"How about a light beer, then?" he asked.

"Give me a break," the clerk said, and angrily went back inside. Jack felt like hitting something, but he didn't want to make a scene. If he knew his people and the General, then there were already people out looking for him.

A pickup drove up and a man got out. Jack immediately recognized him. He had no idea that Harlan Beck had been assigned to a posting so close to his base. If he had, they would have been out for beer several times already. Jack got an idea. "Harley?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" the guy said.

"Harlan Beck, you served in Operation Prove Force out of Incirlik, right?" Jack continued.

"Yeah, how'd you know about that, kid?" Harlan asked.

"You knew my uncle. I recognized your image from a picture of an airplane. Told a story about an AC-130 gunship that this stand-up guy flew over Baghdad," he continued.

"Then your uncle was Special Forces," Harlan said.

"Yeah, General Jack O'Neill," he said.

"General... Right, he did just make General, didn't he? So, you're Jack's nephew. I didn't know he had a sibling," Harlan mused.

"Uh, he used to, but you know, things happen. Uncle Jack has been like a father to me. You know, since my folks died," Jack said, deciding that maybe scoring a few pity points would up his chances for when he asked Harlan to buy him beer.

"Ah, so how is old Jack doing, anyway?" Harlan asked.

"He's fine, and not that old," Jack said, and added, "either way," in his thoughts.

"Well, tell him that Harley says to watch his six when you see him," Harlan said and headed for the liquor store.

"About that, would you mind maybe helping a guy out? Just a six-pack, maybe," Jack said and offered Harlan the money he had planned to buy his own beer with earlier.

But Harlan was still a morally upstanding guy, so -- to Jack's dismay -- he just shook his head and kept on walking.

"He shoots, and he misses. More beer, Jack? Do you have some sort of craving, or something?" Buffy said while sauntering up to him, looking like she had just come out of the nearby forest. Jack didn't want to know how she had tracked him, but given her powers and their purpose, it made sense that she'd know how to follow her prey.

"Summers, listen to me. I have just been read my death sentence. I don't want to spend my final days as a Popsicle, and I will be dead before I let them put another snake in my head. I just want to have a couple of beers and sit somewhere near water and enjoy them in peace, while maybe waiting for some fish to bite," he said.

Buffy studied him for a while, then said, "Fair enough." She took the ten-dollar bill he still had in his hand. A car drove up, and a young Airman stepped out of it, probably on his way home from the Mountain. Thankfully, it didn't look like he recognized either of them. Buffy did something to her blouse, then walked up next to the man before he made it to the store.

"Excuse me," she said, and her voice was heavier with her Californian accent than he had heard in years.

The Airman turned and his eyes raked over Buffy's body, before he said with a smile. "What can I help you with?"

"I wondered if you could help me. My friends and I were up here for, like, our vacation, but my creepy boyfriend got all annoyed because I flirted with someone and totally dumped me here in the middle of nowhere. I need a ride into the city and, I don't know, maybe if you could get some beer for the ride? I'd pay for the beer, and you'd be my hero," she said and gave the soldier a coy smile.

The Airman gulped and nodded, before heading inside.

"You have no shame," Jack said.

"Actually, I have lots, but you wanted beer. I believe in giving dying people what they want," Buffy said.

"You'll totally break his heart," Jack commented.

"I'm not even eighteen! That guy is a complete perv, and he's getting what's coming to him," Buffy said.

The soldier reemerged, carrying two sixpacks of beer. "Hey, thanks," Buffy said and offered to carry one. He handed it to her. As he headed to his car Buffy veered off and headed around the side of the building where Jack had stayed for the entire debacle.

"Hey, what about your ride?" The Airman called out behind them.

"Hey, what about finding a girlfriend your own age? Perv!" Buffy replied.

"Bitch," the soldier yelled.

Buffy gave the Airman the finger, and together they went towards Jack's next objective.

--------------

"Selmak had a chance to go over the DNA test results, and he discovered something. It seems that General O'Neill's condition is not what we thought it was," Janet explained.

"He isn't dying?" Sam said, hoping the best for her friend and commanding officer.

"He is dying. However, if you remember, we saw a slight mismatch between General O'Neill's DNA on file and the one from the sample. We thought it was just an error in measurement. Selmak believes it is something else," Janet explained.

Selmak said, using his distorted version of her father's voice, "The child we have had as a guest these last days is not General O'Neill. He's a clone."

--------------

Jack and Buffy sat by a small river. Jack was fishing and drinking beer. Buffy was just watching the water and Jack. "You know, that Airman will think you and I were more than just friends," Jack said.

Buffy winced. She could imagine that the Airman thought that, but the thought of being with Jack, kissing him and moving on from there, wasn't really something she could think about without feeling really really weird about it all.

Jack was looking at her. He laughed. "Yeah, I was like that the first time I thought about it too," he said.

"Don't even think about that. Man, how weird would that be? I would be sucking face with a guy whom my mom has the hots for, and who has been a kind of substitute dad for me when there was no one else," she admitted.

"Really, substitute dad?" Jack turned back to look out over the river. "Thanks... I never knew, but that's kind of touching," he said.

"Don't be like that. You're acting like you've given up. That's not like you," she replied.

"I know. I haven't given up, but I don't have any enemy to fight right now. There is nothing I can do but wait. I hate waiting," Jack explained.

"Oh, I know. I know you, remember?" She said, then paused. She could hear footsteps coming up the path. At least two people in military boots were coming towards them. It took her a few moments to recognize the walks of Teal'c, Sam, Daniel and Jonas.

"We have company coming. The guys are here," she said.

"Okay," Jack said and adjusted his tackle as if he didn't care.

Buffy turned her head and watched the group approach. Her mom looked relieved to see her. Teal'c nodded towards her, and she nodded back.

"Unless you're here to fish, Carter, I don't want to know why you're here!" Jack said, his inflections full of defiance, but his voice was that of a teenager and that ruined the effect -- at least, Buffy thought so.

"Jack, we've discovered something, and . . . well, there is no easy way to tell you this. So Sam is gonna tell you," Daniel said.

Buffy smirked for a moment, while her mom gave Daniel an annoyed look. "Sir, as you know, the Asgard depend on cloning technology to survive," her mom said, but Buffy could hear that what she had to say was not something her mom liked to explain. She was beating around the bush.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Jack said, and got up to face her mom. Buffy slowly copied his move, but stayed back, leaning against a tree. She had just realized something. What her mom's opening statement and what she felt around Jack from time to time all meant. She killed the gasp on her lips before it escaped.

"You have been cloned, O'Neill. Or rather, you are the clone," Teal'c said bluntly.

"What? That's not possible. I'm me, I remember everything about me," Jack protested.

"We think that the Asgard took the real you and made a copy, General. An unstable one, at that," Jonas said.

"The real me?" Jack asked. Buffy could hear in Jack's voice that while his head disbelieved what they were saying his heart was telling him it was true, and that was probably upsetting him the most. She wondered if Jack would try to run. That might be the moment when she had to move in and restrain him. She had no idea if they needed the clone to get the other Jack back. Afterwards, there would be a whole other mess to deal with, though. A mess that included what they could do for the clone as it died.

"Uh, the original, rather. That's not to say you're not real. You are," Daniel quickly said, as young Jack took a step towards Jonas.

"Where is the original?" Jack finally asked. Buffy noticed his shoulders relaxing slightly, indicating his acceptance of defeat. He'd return voluntarily, now. She took a few steps forward and brushed off the back of her outfit. They'd be leaving soon.

"We have an idea how to find out, but we need your help to do that," her mom said.

"Lead on then, Carter," Jack said.

"Sure," Sam said, and together they all headed away from the creek.

--------------

"Jonas and I have calculated an approximate gap of seven days between abductions that match yours. Which puts the next turn-around tonight," Daniel said.

"This plan sucks. Look, I know you don't think I am who I am, but as far as I am concerned I am who I am, and I don't like this," Jack explained.

Buffy leaned in and whispered into Jack's ear. "I knew you weren't physically you from the first minute I met you. I appreciate any person for who they are, not what they are, and the others aren't much different, Jack. This isn't only about recovering the other you, but about getting hold of the one who did this to you," she said and leaned back to find everyone at the conference table looking at them.

"The switch is our only chance of preventing something like this happening again to someone else and capturing the guilty party," her mom said.

"What about the fact that I am dying? I mean, has anyone even thought about that for a second?" Jack paused.

"Of course, doofus," Buffy said and slapped Jack across his arm.

"Oh, okay," Jack said, a bit mollified.

"Besides, the Asgard are over-the-top smart, so if anyone can fix you, why not the one responsible?" Buffy said. All around the table heads were nodding eagerly.

"Fine, get me the Asgard, a knife, and a 9 mil in a room, and I will get it out of the sucker," Jack said. Buffy nodded in agreement, although she'd like to be the helper. While she had tortured vampires before, she would have serious qualms about doing it to anything with a soul.

"We don't know what we might be facing here," Daniel cautioned.

"Yet you want to use me as bait. You're never gonna be able to intercept or stop an Asgard beam. At least, unless a whole lot has happened in R&D that I haven't been told about this week. Listen, I might be the best chance we have of capturing this guy... Alright, I guess I can do with being bait, but I want to be carrying a gun," Jack suggested.

Everyone looked around the table. "A Zat. Nothing more," General Hammond finally said.

"Thank you, sir," Jack said.

Buffy leaned in and said, "I seem to recall you getting tics and hives just at the thought of little fifteen-year-old Buffy with a gun. You just lost every Buffy-and-gun related whining right."

"Yeah, but you were an invalid with amnesia at the time, kiddo. It was quite valid not to trust you with a gun. In fact, I still barely trust you with more than kitchen utensils," Jack replied and grinned. Buffy mirrored his grin and sat back again as her mom started laying out the plan.

--------------

They were waiting outside, while Jack the clone was inside on his bed pretending – badly – to be sleeping. There was a radio nearby, so they could hear him, and her mom had a mike that allowed her to speak to him. They were having a conversation, when Buffy saw the white glow from Jack's bedroom window. "It's time, let's get going," Buffy said.

They rushed inside and quickly headed for the bedroom. Jack -- old Jack -- was sleeping like nothing had happened in his bed.

"General, sir, are you alright?" her mom said as she rushed over and shook Jack's shoulder. Buffy could see he was sleeping, but apparently her mom was a bit more worried than she was.

"O'Neill," Teal'c called out, seemingly unaffected by the entire event.

"W-What?" Jack stammered out, then jerked awake and away from her mom. She wondered if he was surprised to see her and everyone else in his bedroom, or if he had trouble figuring out if he was having a certain kind of dream with her mom as a guest star.

"Carter... Everyone. Why are you all in my bedroom?" Jack asked.

"Admiring your choice in wallpaper," Buffy suggested.

Buffy waited while her mom tried to quickly fill the rather surprised General in on what was going on. She had just gotten to the part about Asgard and clones, when they were enveloped in an Asgard beam. Jack the younger was as effective as his counterpart.

--------------

"Took you long enough," Buffy groused with a smile.

"Sorry, I had to put the landlord to sleep and remember all your mom's complicated instructions before I could get you here," Clone Jack replied.

"What's going on?" Jack the older asked and studied the Clone. Buffy grinned: except for the age and the zat in younger Jack's hands there was no difference in poise, dress or manner between the two Jacks. It was downright eerie.

"That would be your clone," Carter said, finishing her sentence from earlier.

"I really am a lot taller than I think," young Jack told her.

"Yeah, I was always glad I am an excellent high jumper," Buffy replied.

"Summers, you need to be a high jumper to get over a midget," old Jack said. "Carter, more of the explanation, please."

"General O'Neill, meet General O'Neill," her mom said.

"Okay, I'm confused," old Jack said.

"Listen, old guy, I am you -- just younger and apparently a bit smarter. Would you listen to what your second in command is saying?" young Jack suggested.

"Hey!" old Jack protested.

"Sir, an Asgard... The one over there, actually. It kidnapped you and replaced you with a clone. However, the clone was not correctly made and came back younger than it was supposed to. Now the clone is dying, and, well, we had to recover you and stop the abductions as well, so we came after it," her mom explained.

"How long was I asleep?" old Jack asked.

"Seven days," her mom replied.

"Nice. Has to be some sort of record. So you're me?" old Jack asked, addressing his clone.

"Yeah. Believe me, if you think it's weird, think how I'm feeling. I was so sure I wasn't a copy," young Jack replied. Buffy could sense his sadness and the buried fear. He was afraid they'd just let him die without trying. She gave him an impromptu hug.

"He is awakening," Teal'c said and stepped up next to the Asgard who had caused all the trouble.

"What's happening?" the Asgard asked, looking confused. Buffy stepped forward.

"You have been kidnapping humans from Earth against their will. Explain yourself," she commanded in Asgard.

"No, no, no, this is all wrong," the Asgard tried to move away, heading for a console.

"Computer, engage defense diagnostics, scan for replicator infection, perform engine diagnostic," Buffy called out in Asgard as it tried to back away. She hoped that by busying the computer on the Asgard ship -- which looked old and small by Thor's standards -- this Asgard wouldn't be able to beam them out on voice command.

Teal'c stepped in front of the Asgard, blocking his path to the nearest console.

"Hey, you!" old Jack advanced on the Asgard. "I'll tell you what's wrong. I just woke up. I haven't had my morning coffee yet, let alone a pee in seven days, and I find out you've been doing experiments on me with your amateur science set while a mini-me was running around in my shoes. I am irked," Jack said and turned towards her mom.

"I should be irked, right?" old Jack asked.

"I would be," her mom agreed.

"Why don't you tell us who you are? And don't try to spout off something unintelligible in Asgard: my girls are fluent in Asgard," old Jack said.

"I am Loki," the Asgard admitted.

Daniel whistled, seemingly impressed. "Loki, the Norse god of mischief, magic and a whole lot of other things. If there was trouble in their mythology, the Norse usually could find Loki or his Giant counterpart at the center of it," Daniel explained.

"What did you want with General O'Neill?" Jonas asked.

"I have nothing more to say to any of you," Loki replied and glowered at Buffy. She smiled back. She guessed that the little man was upset with her little trick, although she also knew that ruse would only last a short while longer.

"We save your flat white asses from the Replicators yet again, and this is the thanks we get! Seriously, some of my people have lost years of their lives to helping you, and yet you come here to kidnap people?" old Jack protested.

"Hey, what about me? That guy brought me into being, but he gave me a week to live. Apparently, his skills at the Xerox aren't quite up to par. You have to fix me," young Jack demanded of Loki.

"I cannot. All clones suffer the same fate," Loki replied. Buffy wasn't sure the Asgard had told the truth. Her instincts told her it hadn't, but then those instincts were meant for human society, mostly.

"What is going on? Why have you done this?" old Jack demanded.

"I am a scientist. A former geneticist with the Asgard Ruling Council," Loki said, as if that explained it all.

"Former?" her mom asked.

"I was stripped of my position after I was caught performing unsanctioned experiments on humans," Loki admitted.

"There are _sanctioned _ones? I don't recall anything about that in the news," old Jack said.

"I merely had the courage to do what was needed to advance our cloning technology," Loki said, not sounding the least bit sorry.

"That isn't courage, that is a lack of compassion for fellow sentient beings. A lack of morality. People's lives were toyed with. And the clones clearly are living beings, too. With all those experiments down the years, how many of them have you made and discarded?" her mom accused.

"I did this for my race. We cannot withstand the errors inherent in our unnatural duplication process much longer," Loki said.

"How is this gonna change that? We're humans, not Asgard. Experiments on us can't be directly transferable to you," Daniel said.

"Your bodies are similar to our original form thousands of years ago. Using your physical makeup as a template I had hoped to find a way to construct a clone that could contain our massively superior intellect. My research was unsuccessful so far," Loki said.

"So much for 'massively superior,'" young Jack said.

"It was unsuccessful _so far_. I would have found what I needed eventually, but I am sure your primitive minds are already contemplating violence against me as retribution for what is really an imagined slight. No permanent harm has come to any human being," Loki said.

"Why now, after so long? According to the records we have, your type of abductions stopped for nineteen years," Daniel asked.

"I believed he was the one. Or maybe, her," Loki said and indicated first Jack, then her. Buffy gulped. She didn't want a clone of her running around.

"You can stop thinking that right now, mister, or I will demonstrate primitive human behavior and splat your skinny gray ass against the nearest hullplate," she threatened.

"You wanted my genetic code... Why?" young Jack asked.

"He was physiologically advanced enough to carry and utilize all the data from the Ancients' Repository of Knowledge. And that one, according to the records I have procured, has more Ancient DNA than any other being I have detected so far. Both represent the potential for significant steps forward on the human evolutionary path," Loki explained.

"You just found out about this?" Daniel asked.

"I learned about it when all other Asgard did. O'Neill is legendary amongst the Asgard. And Thor has sung the praises of Buffy since his return from Vindgloed. When the Asgard Fleet was distracted, I took the chance and came here to continue my experiments. I do not regret my actions. I am trying to save my people from extinction," Loki admitted.

"Look, this isn't about me. But seriously, I am dying here. Literally," young Jack said.

"I cannot reverse your fate. Nor can I explain why you did not mature to the proper age as you should have," Loki said, looking confused at the clone of Jack for a few moments.

"Well, I can see another reason for why they kicked you out of the Asgard Science Club," young Jack said.

"I have heard enough. Carter or Buffy, can either of you call Thor on this thing?" Jack asked, indicating the console nearby.

"We could, but the computer will be a little busy for a bit longer. Most Asgard ships have verbal controls, and I told it earlier to do some things. Most Asgard ships this size don't have security protocols when not on combat alert," Buffy explained.

"Clever," her mom said, but still went for the console. "This is a science vessel though, Honey, and it has an upgraded computer, so it's already done with those things."

"Please do not call Thor," Loki asked.

"We've already tried to call him through subspace from the SGC, though," her mom said as she adjusted the settings on the Asgard console.

"You'd think Thor'd know that we wouldn't call him needlessly," Jack said.

"All right, how long are we going to..." young Jack said and stumbled slightly.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked.

"Actually no," young Jack replied.

"What are we going to do if Thor doesn't..." Daniel was saying when Thor arrived in a shower of light.

"Hi, Thor," Buffy said.

"Buddy, it's about time," Jack replied.

"I must apologize for not coming sooner. What have you done this time Loki?" Thor asked in a familiar tone, as if he knew and was used to Loki and his antics.

"He has been playing mad scientist on me," Jack said.

Thor turned towards Loki. "You should have known that we have safeguarded O'Neill's genetic code for his own protection. Honestly, Loki, your insistence on working on your own has -- as so often before -- become your downfall yet again," Thor said.

"Excuse me, 'protection'?" Jack asked.

"A marker was placed in your DNA to prevent any attempts at genetic manipulation and cloning," Thor said.

"The abnormality," Daniel said.

"That's why the clone didn't mature," her mom added.

Buffy felt she had to ask: "Was I protected as well?"

"Yes, of course. Much like O'Neill, your DNA is very valuable to your race, and thus I arranged for its protection," Thor explained.

Buffy wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she chose not to complain at that moment.

"So, is the General or my daughter the key to solving your cloning problems?" her mom asked.

"Alas, no," Thor admitted.

"I thought I was very advanced?" Jack said.

"Indeed you are, O'Neill. However our scientists have already determined that while you are an important step forward in the human evolutionary chain, the missing link we have been searching for still eludes us," Thor explained.

"I'm sorry," Buffy, Jack, and young Jack said at the same time. Buffy grinned for a moment.

"And I apologize for any inconvenience Loki may have caused," Thor replied.

"What about him?" her mom asked, indicating Jack's clone. Buffy noticed he was getting more pale.

"Unfortunately, the genetic breakdown of the clone is not my doing, but rather the result of Loki's inept methods," Thor said.

"I protest. There was never any need for the clones to survive," Loki complained.

"Look, Thor, is there anything you can do for him?" Jack asked.

"Do you want him to survive, O'Neill?" Thor asked.

Jack seemed to take his time thinking about it, so Buffy slapped him and heard that the other Jack had done the same. "You can't just let me die," young Jack said.

"Of course not, yeah, I want him to survive," Jack said.

"Very well, I will attempt a repair on his DNA. If successful, he should continue to mature at the normal human rate," Thor said.

"Thanks," both Jacks said. Thor bowed in reply, then both he and Jack's clone disappeared.

--------------

Buffy stood next to Jack's car. "So, I am not calling you 'Jack' anymore; that's confusing. You gotta pick a name," she said.

"I already have, Buffy. You can call me Jonathan," Jonathan replied.

"Cool, and you'll do what you promised?" she said.

"Of course," Jonathan said. Buffy noticed Jack giving them a weird look from the driver's seat.

"We gotta get going," Jack said.

"Goodbye then," Buffy said.

"Bye," Johnathan replied, and the truck drove off.

"What was that about?" her mom asked.

"Nothing," Buffy replied and smiled.

"Then get going, we have some sort of urgent meeting at ten. Granddad has some sort of important news about Tartarus," her mom said.

Buffy looked down the road after the truck, then went towards her mom's car. "Can I drive?" she asked.

"No," her mom's reply was instant.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20:**

Buffy and her mom wandered into the conference room, where General Hammond and a collection of SGC officers and Tok'ra were waiting. The heavy steps on the stairs behind her told Buffy that Teal'c was on the way up, too. The only one who wasn't invited was Jack, who was still out delivering Jonathan to his new place of residence. He'd probably be briefed later -- especially since this was an emergency session.

Buffy noticed a Tok'ra display device on the table, which matched the word they'd gotten that it had been the Tok'ra who had called the meeting. Jacob sat next to Hammond at the end of the Table. There weren't enough seats at the table, and several Tok'ra and officers were standing behind their commanding officers. Thinking ahead, Buffy didn't seat herself and instead waited beside the last empty chair, next to where her mom sat. Teal'c strode over and took his seat. She tried to look stoic, which was harder to do intentionally than she'd thought. Doing it both intentionally and constantly for more than a few minutes made her want to laugh.

"Alright, people, listen up. The Tok'ra have a very important report to give. Jacob," General Hammond said and indicated for her Granddad to continue. Buffy noticed he looked very tired.

"During these past three months the Tok'ra and Jaffa in a joint operation retrieved a large set of data from one of Anubis' trusted Goa'uld. We have shared this data with your organization and have since worked to decrypt and analyze it. A few weeks ago the data and other intel allowed us to start planning an operation to infiltrate the main research operation on a planet designated 'Tartarus'. This operation has been ongoing for the last few days. Four hours ago we finally received word on what was being developed on Tartarus. Our operatives didn't make it out and died to keep secret the source of the operation and how much they had discovered," Jacob explained.

"I'm sorry," Buffy blurted out before she could keep her mouth shut.

"Thank you, dear," Jacob said and continued his report, "Anubis is looking for a replacement for the Jaffa. He has never trusted their effectiveness or their loyalty. He believes he has found a perfect new breed of soldier."

Jacob activated the holographic projector. It showed a black armored figure surrounded by Goa'uld texts. Sentences like "Armor impervious to kinetic, ion and plasma weapons", "Rapid plasma bolt cannon gauntlets" and "Genetic and Mentally modified Goa'uld cloned host." At the bottom in larger fonts it said, "Kull Warrior." Buffy was glad her body featured a Carter-genes-enhanced head trained by the best. She actually understood what those terms meant, and what she was seeing scared her. Those Kull would be able to shrug off all forms of small arms fire, be it from Goa'uld or Earth weapons. They'd be stronger than any Jaffa, maybe even on a par with her, and they'd recover from their wounds quickly. Coupled with the brainwashed loyalty they were a nearly perfect infantry weapon system.

"This is an artificially created and kept alive, genetically modified host being with a strong but brainwashed Goa'uld parasite wrapped in a shell that will protect it against both Tau'ri and Jaffa weaponry. It is completely loyal and extremely powerful, but it has two weaknesses. First: it has a short operation time. The entire thing is physiologically supercharged beyond what even the modified host body can handle, and so the host body dies if it isn't kept in stasis after approximately five days or so of operation. Second: its creation is currently heavily dependent on the Tartarus facility and several rare components. Our data indicates that _the creation of prototypes _is commencing now , having been delayed by the death of Thoth. If this weapon system is deployed, we will lose horribly -- or rather, lose even faster. We need to strike at Tartarus soon, and that is why we are here today," Jacob explained.

"The main problem is that neither the Tok'ra, Jaffa nor Tau'ri have the fleet strength alone to strike at Tartarus. When not deployed elsewhere, Anubis' main fleet uses Tartarus as its staging point. We can't attack it directly," Jacob continued.

"So, what you're looking for from all of us is...?" Jonas asked.

"We wanted ask our allies for suggestions and help. None of us can survive long if Anubis gets the Kull warriors into the field," Jacob explained.

"Clearly," Teal'c agreed, sealing the issue for her as well -- at least, officially.

"General?" Buffy's mom asked. Sam seemed to have remembered enough of her Goa'uld to understand what Buffy had understood earlier.

"Alright, we need to come up with a strategy. Colonel Carter, I want an analysis of the capabilities of that thing within the hour. This takes precedence for all departments. Dr. Jackson, coordinate with diplomatic find out if we have any intel on Tartarus. Mr. Quinn, take that data to medical and have them look it over. Jacob, Teal'c, please join me in my office. And someone send word to Jack: tell him to come to my office as soon as he returns," General Hammond said and got up.

Teal'c rose. He bent and whispered into her ear. "Request time on the subspace communicator and contact Master Bra'tac. Tell him what is going on and that I want him to mobilize everything we have or can quickly steal, but not to move before we contact him again," he said. She nodded and strode off at her best speed.

---------

"Ah, Buffy, it pleases me to see you well," Bra'tac's face appeared on her screen. He looked like he was standing on the bridge of an Al'kesh.

"Master Bra'tac, Teal'c has told me to tell you the following. Anubis is creating a new type of warrior using his knowledge of Ancient technology. This warrior is meant to supplant the Jaffa. I believe that would mean that he'd kill all of us as soon as he could after that. The Tau'ri and the Tok'ra are going to destroy the facility where these unnatural warriors are to be made. Teal'c asks that we gather all the forces we can muster for a battle. I wanted to relay his request to you. Master, these warriors are a grave threat, and even one would be able to kill a company of Jaffa or human soldiers without them being able to do much. Anubis has made them immune to the regular weaponry of the Goa'uld, Jaffa, and even the humans," Buffy explained.

"I understand. Tell Teal'c I will gather all our allies together and await word. And good luck to us all," Bra'tac said and cut the connection.

Buffy leaned back and sighed. Suddenly everything felt like May in Sunnydale: all disasters and apocalypses on the horizon. She looked at her watch. No one had given her anything else to do, so she decided it was time for a bit of private time, such as sending a message to a friend.

A few minutes later she was sitting at her desk in the small room designated as hers. It was sparsely decorated with a few pictures of her friends, a supposedly decorative weapon was mounted on the wall, and there were a few shelves over a tiny cot that she had placed in there, just in case. The security department either hadn't found or just tolerated the weapon she had hidden in the foot end of the mattress. Buffy knew some people would consider her paranoid, but given her own and the SGC's history, she was taking no chances. She flipped up her secure laptop. She had an email to write and before it cleared security and censorship, Jonathan would be back from his first day back at High School. She had promised him, after all. She would keep in touch and so would he.

Buffy wondered if she could write anything about the danger her Granddad had informed them off, but knew intellectually that Jonathan could not be told -- especially over unencrypted email. Instead, she filled her mail with vague indications of hard times and remembered to ask lots of questions about his first day at school. Given his years of experience Buffy had a bet going with herself on how long it would be before Jack's clone would have his first girlfriend, and given his genetic heritage how long it would take him to get in and out of trouble.

Buffy's phone rang. She saw that the caller id said, "R&D lab 26," which was SGC code for her mom's personal lab and office.

"Buffy Summers Carter," she said, trying to sound as if she had no idea who was on the other end of the line.

"Damn, I was looking for Buffy Anne. My mistake," her mom replied. There was a pause as they both laughed, "Seriously, though, Buffy: we're going back into the meeting. We think we have a plan. You should head back up to the conference room."

"Thanks for the heads up. Mom?" she asked.

"Yes?" Sam replied.

"What's the idea?" she asked.

"Just come to the meeting, honey," her mom replied.

"Okay, see you in a few minutes," she said and put down the phone. She wondered what her mom had come up with in such a short time. It had barely been half an hour since they had left the first meeting.

---------

"Are you as fond of these meetings as I am?" Jack whispered. He had apparently made it back down in time for this briefing.

"Yeah, Jack, because I'm such a talker. Let me do things. Even plan tactical stuff. But honestly, these things are only fun when mom or someone else has come up with yet another wild, insane plan," Buffy replied as she sat next to him. The briefing looked a whole lot smaller than the previous one. Just SG-1, both generals, and her granddad . . . well, and her, but Buffy liked to count herself as a part of SG-1, official or not.

Buffy noticed her mom pacing near the big TV screen. It looked like they really did have a plan.

"So, Carter, I bet you've come up with some wild scheme again. How are we putting one over on Anubis this time? Stealth, invasion, or are we gonna have our first real space battle?" Jack asked as everyone looked ready.

"Well, sir, we considered several of those options, but both tactical and strategical analysis agrees that Stealth would currently take too long or be next to impossible to arrange," her mom paused and looked at her granddad.

"Anubis has upped his security after the infiltration. We believe he fears what we might have found in Thoth's database. Our access codes are no longer viable, and the force field covering the gate exit is not letting any type of electro-magnetic wave pass," Jacob explained.

"Invasion would then require that we defeat Anubis' protection in orbit. Current intel indicates that this is currently a fleet group made up of over 10 Ha'tak class motherships and the support of a nearly finished second flagship that the small space dock in orbit is building, according to Tok'ra observations. The base itself is seated in very hostile terrain, beneath a powerful-looking force field dome. Any invasion force would also be in danger of meeting the Kull while fighting in what, in the end, could only be Hazmat suits," her mom explained.

"Leaving us the option of blowing the sun again, right?" Jack said.

"No, sir, as I have explained before, the time dilation means that right now the gate wormhole exit hasn't closed from the last time yet, and probably won't in our lifetime," her mom explained.

"So what is your plan, Carter?" Jack asked.

"Actually, sir, Jonas gave me the idea." Her mom smiled at the short-haired, multi-talented scientist.

"This is the Tartarus solar system," her mom said, and an image of the solar system appeared on the screen. "You'll notice the moon in orbit over the target planet. What we propose to do is launch it at the Tartarus planet. The impact will cause an extinction level event that would guarantee the destruction of the base and most likely a noticeable part of Anubis' fleet," her mom said.

Jack and Hammond sat with their mouths open. Buffy guessed neither had ever thought of a moon as a potential weapon, and Buffy was betting that her mom figured that neither had Anubis. Buffy liked the plan, and -- dependent on a lot of other factors -- it could also rid them of the main bad guy, as well.

"I love it," Jack finally said. "But how are we going to move a moon, Carter? I'm guessing that Anubis is not gonna wait while we mount some big, honking engine on it."

Buffy realized from the reports and stories of SG-1 and her mom's exploits what was actually being planned, but didn't say anything as it was her mom's show.

"Well, no, of course not, sir. What we're planning to do is borrow one of the Tok'ra Ha'tak that have been fitted with a stealth package. It isn't invisible, but it is quite stealthy. We'll then fly up to the moon, extend as much of our hyperspace window around the moon. Recent research of mine has shown that we can setup a small resonator unit on naquadah causing it to resonate and boost existing fields much like it does within a regular hyperdrive. It is a bit like blowing more air into a bubble. We can then use what remains of the Naquadah meteor Anubis launched at us as a large booster and fly the moon at full speed towards Tartarus. Provided the field holds up, we can switch it off a short time later and allow gravity to take hold as we jump away. Given the natural speed of the moon and a bit of vector math, we should be able to see Tartarus cracking open like an egg on our ship's sensors as we leave the system," her mom explained.

"There are a few issues still confronting us, however. The Ha'tak is pretty far from the target, and it would have to travel to Earth, then on to Tartarus. Even with the engines at full power, that trip would take longer than the Tok'ra are immediately comfortable with. We could be hitting an empty base this way, but we see no alternative, either. Further more the field expansion resonator would have to be pretty close to the moon to make the field encompass it. However the Ha'tak creating the field might then be caught in the moon's crash into the planet and be destroyed," Jacob explained.

"I don't know about the Ha'tak, but depending on how large the naquadah lump we'll use is then maybe we could just put the resonator in a Tel'tak and have it fly to the moon with the Ha'tak positioned out of harm's way," Buffy suggested.

"Would that work?" Jack asked. Her mom nodded.

After a few moments. Buffy could see Hammond and Jack getting ready to go off and discuss the plan when Teal'c weighed in. "I see another way. The Jaffa ship protecting Earth can execute this plan with great speed. Our engines have been upgraded using the technology from the Prometheus, and it is here, ready to take on the cargo of Naquadah now," he explained.

"But it would be detected immediately on jumping out of hyperspace without the stealth cover," Jonas said.

"That is a chance we should take to ensure that the abominations Anubis has been preparing to do not get out to murder innocent Jaffa and humans. My warriors will do this task with your help. Leave it to us, please," Teal'c said.

General Hammond stayed silent for a little while, then said: "Alright, I see no better plan on the table. Colonel Carter, get everything ready. I will call the Joint Chiefs and the President to get permission to move the naquadah. General O'Neill, please join me in your office," Hammond said and got up.

Buffy watched them leave. "Buffy, come with me. We have to go get our ship ready," Teal'c said.

"Coming," she replied and headed for the ring platform nearby with her friend.

They were halfway down into the corridor leading from the Gate control room into the main corridors. "Buffy, wait up," her mom called out. Teal'c gave her a look and headed on ahead. She guessed he wanted to give her time with her mom, although Buffy had no idea what her mom wanted.

"Sure," she replied and stopped.

"That attack on Tartarus . . . are you coming with us?" Her mom asked, looking as if she feared the answer.

"Yeah, Teal'c wants to go with his ship, and so I'm coming, too. At least I think so," she replied. She realized this was the moment she had dreaded coming. When she'd have to really choose between family and her destiny. She would again have to turn down her chance at safety to fulfill her destiny. It came sooner or later in every universe, it seemed. If there was one thing she dreaded more than anything, it was the feeling of loss she got when she disappointed her family members by putting everyone else ahead of them. The look on their faces always killed her.

Her mom ran a hand through her short blond hair, seemingly wrangling with her feelings for a few moments. "Promise me you'll come back okay, okay?" her mom said.

Buffy pulled her taller mom into a hug, feeling all warm inside. "Thank you for understanding... And I promise I will," she said.

Buffy turned and took a few steps before stopping. "What about the rest of SG-1?" she asked.

"Jack had an idea and just told me. We're taking the Prometheus in ahead of you to distract as much of Anubis' fleet as we can. I'm shipping out in a few hours, after I get a transport ship with the Naquadah and my resonator over to your ship," her mom said.

"See you on the other side, then... And, mom, what you said to me . . . that goes for you, too," she said.

"I promise," her mom replied and went up the steps into the Command Center, while Buffy turned and ran to catch up with Teal'c.

---------

Buffy felt slightly uncomfortable and exposed in her Jaffa armor. It seemed Teal'c had even found a helmet for her. She had tried activating the hawk helmet once, but the lack of vision it forced on her was practically unbearable, although Teal'c swore that in many cases her helmet was better than regular eyes at seeing things no human could, such as heat signatures and the like. She didn't really care to test the theory. Still, seeing it folding away to be nothing more than a golden collar on her shoulders was impressive.

The ship dubbed _The Vengeance of Generations_ in Goa'uld by its owners was ready, and the last civilian and Tok'ra personnel had gotten off a few minutes ago. A transport ship filled with Naquadah was landing at the moment, and Teal'c was chatting with a happy-looking Jack aboard the Prometheus, with her mom standing behind him. The image cut off.

"We should tell Master Bra'tac to stop gathering his ships," she said remembering that the old warrior was still readying for a big battle.

"No, we should tell him to be ready to come to the defense of Chulak or Earth, if Anubis should survive our attack," Teal'c said.

Buffy remembered her many hours of training with the large warrior while he drilled the behavior of her primary enemy into her head. The Goa'uld were proud and vindictive to a fault. "Of course... Do you think the SGC knows what this might lead to?" she asked.

"I believe they know, deep down. But the Tau'ri like to hope for the best. Still, we have no choice. The abominations cannot be allowed to spread into the Galaxy," Teal'c said.

"True," she agreed.

"I want you to fly us out of here," Teal'c said and offered her his space at the main console.

Buffy thought it over. That meant she'd be flying a mothership, at least for a while. Of course, there were two or three better candidates on the bridge, but no one looked like they minded. That could just be Jaffa stoicism, but she hoped it was okay. "Cool, but you know you have to show me how," she said.

"Indeed. But then that is how we all learn," Teal'c said as she placed her hand in the control alcove and before her eyes an image appeared, showing many more details of the ship than were visible if you just looked at the main display. She hadn't known that the bridge of a Ha'tak had a telepathic kind of interface, but it made sense. It even looked to her like her hand was on some sort of large display. Quickly reading the texts she figured out how to set the speed and hyperspace coordinates, which were controlled much like on the other kinds of Goa'uld ships. There was also an activation button for the tactical console and direct control over the weapons. Somewhere in her mind the information on how to use the weapons and how best to aim them starting appearing.

Teal'c started explaining the controls from memory, starting with how she could set a course for Tartarus and activate the hyperdrive. The controls were easy, but then they were meant for a people that were kept in the dark about the truths of the technology that surrounded them.

---------

They were about an hour from Tartarus, she figured. She had taken a short nap and returned to the bridge, where Ma'chak -- one of the Jaffa pilots -- was behind the controls. Teal'c was standing behind him, looking like a lonely stone giant overlooking the blue-white hyperspace in front of the view screen.

"Teal'c, you've been avoiding a couple of issues," she said.

"Which ones, Buffy?" he asked.

"The Naquadah needs to get down on the moon fast, and you need to be here to pilot the mothership. Putting the transport down on remote is too risky. And I am sure we'd like to keep that lump of precious metal for later too. All things aside, you're the best mothership pilot we have. You should let me fly the transport down," she said. She wanted to be the one to pilot the mothership, but she also was quite aware of the fact that it would be a mistake for her to think she could fly the giant hunk of metal after only a short introduction to the main console. And this way at least she felt like she was doing more than just sightseeing on this mission.

"I know. But to send you in the transport requires me to go back on my promise to keep you safe, Buffy. Your mother would be very displeased with me. And I do not like it, either. You'd have to escape on your own, as we would not have time to await your return after the jump. My heart bids me to send someone else, but my soul says you are the only small craft pilot I have who could, I think, fly a transport through the ensuing chaos safely," he said.

Buffy realized she hadn't thought about that. She was trained in most types of space-going crafts from her time on the Prometheus, but that had all been done on the Asgard simulators. She was good at flying the X-302s and X-305s. She could fly an Al'kesh and a Tel'tak with ease, but she didn't consider herself any better than any other pilots. "You're saying you want me to fly the transport, too, but can't get yourself to ask me to do it?" She asked.

"Yes," Teal'c agreed.

Buffy took a deep breath. "I want to fly that transport, Teal'c. Don't worry about me. I'll just fly clear when we get out of hyperspace and kick my own drive into gear. With all that Naquadah aboard I should make it back before you guys do, with time to spare. I won't be in any more danger down there than I would be up here," she said.

Teal'c thought it over, "Fine, but if you see us damaged or destroyed you're ordered not to come to our rescue. You take that ship and its cargo back to your planet." He looked quite serious about it.

"Yes, Master," she deadpanned, then stared at her wristwatch which she had to admit looked very out of place on her Jaffa outfit. "I should go down to the transport and make sure it's in good shape," she said.

"Yes," Teal'c agreed.

Buffy stopped and turned to walk back to the big black man. She leaned against his armored back and reached around him, giving him a warm hug that he could feel even through his armor. "In case you don't see me again or I don't see you. I love you like family, Teal'c," she said.

Teal'c patted her hands softly and said in a low voice so the other Jaffa couldn't hear: "I love you like a daughter, too, Buffy Summers. Be safe. I will see you back at the mountain."

---------

"It is time," Teal'c's voice said over the communicator. Buffy nodded to herself and watched the docking bay doors open. Outside the stars were still moving fast as the ship slowed down from hyperspeed. She activated the thrusters, and the transport powered out of the Ha'tak at a good clip. The sensors lit up.

Several hostile Ha'tak were firing at what could only be the Prometheus engaging the patrol above Tartarus. Small swarms of Deathgliders were flying around the green dot on her radar like a cloud of tiny red pixels. Below, a large blue icon indicated the position of the moon, but she didn't need the sensors to tell her that. The nosedive she was performing had already brought the moon into view.

Their Ha'tak was moving a lot like her transport ship, albeit naturally slower. Teal'c had sent her a set of coordinates. She flew down at full speed and pulled up just at the last moment, settling in underneath the growing shadow of the Ha'tak. On her sensors she could see the Prometheus moving off at high speed, finally jumping out. She breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her mom leaving to safety.

"Buffy, we are starting now. Get ready," Teal'c said. She tensed. All around her there was a moment of breathless anticipation. The air smelled like warm metal. She knew that somewhere behind her the Naquadah in the cargo hold and her mom's little device was amplifying the hyperspace field of the Ha'tak to a much bigger size. Nothing seemed to be happening.

An alarm started blaring. A small swarm of Deathgliders was on the way towards them. Several orange bolts of energy flew past silently. There was a large surge that threw her back into her seat.

The ship was in hyperspace only for a short moment, but it was long enough. The blue of hyperspace disappeared, replaced by something a lot like the sound of a gong. The transport jerked around as the world outside seemed to explode into fire. She looked up and saw that the jump had fired them directly into Tartarus' atmosphere. "Fuck! Something went wrong with the jump," she cursed and hammered the ship into drive as the moon seemed to disintegrate around her.

She hoped that Teal'c was able to do the same, but really there was nothing she could do but get herself to safety. She flew forward. She let her mind relax, and her Slayer nature took over. Instincts hardwired to move out of harm's way guided her hands as she jerked left and right, dodging mountain-sized chunks of slowly melting rock, as well as pieces of torn-apart Deathgliders that had been taken along for the ride.

She lost her hold on time and just reacted. She would never be able to tell how long her flight took, but at last she came free of the debris of the moon and flew towards the sky, heading into space. She didn't get to see the moon plow into the planet, hitting almost exactly next to Anubis' base, cracking open the planet as the moon moved into it like the planetary equivalent of a speeding bullet. She didn't see it become a red-hot ball of fire as the atmosphere evaporated from the generated heat and the core of the world spilled onto the rocky surface. Instead, she set the coordinates for Earth and jumped out, sensing that to stay for a look around would have been a mistake. So she didn't see the arc of Ha'tak gunfire that hailed onto the position she had just vacated, her ship entering hyperspace at vastly greater speeds than normal. The resonator was indiscriminate about what hyperspace fields it extended.

---------

His God's presence filled the room with cold anger as the flagship jumped into the Tartarus system near the gathering point for the fleet. His Lord's other ships hovered over the massive asteroid field created by the sudden attack in a silent vigil for the loss. His lord bent forward -- he could hear from the rustle of his clothes. "Do they know who did this to me?" Anubis asked, his calm voice, he was sure, a deceptive illusion.

"Yes, my lord. Our agents have verified that the unknown ship is a Tau'ri design from the writing on its surface, and the other one was the ship captured by the Rebel Jaffa over Thoth's destroyed base -- the rebel movement which is based around the Shol'va Teal'c and his trainer, an old warrior named Bra'tac," he said. He was looking forward to what he was sure would be said in the next moments.

"This is intolerable," Anubis said. "This affront must be punished. Heed my words, First Prime," his god commanded.

He turned and knelt before his master, as the god continued to speak. "Call my battle fleet together. Have Osiris defend my realms with the rest of my ships. Then we will punish them. I have tarried too long in exacting my revenge on the Tau'ri and those pathetic rebels. We know of their secrets; now we will use our knowledge," Anubis commanded, and his voice was filled with anger.

---------

She, Jack, Daniel and Jonas arrived on the ring platform. They had made it out with the Prometheus scratched but intact. They had managed to see Teal'c arrive, but they hadn't gotten the chance to find out how things had worked. Sam expected they'd hear about the result from the Tok'ra soon or later.

They took a step off the platform. "I hope Teal'c and Buffy make it back alright," Jonas said.

"They'll be fine. We'll find out in a few hours, at the latest," she said.

"Actually, I don't know if Teal'c and the mothership are fine, but I am," Buffy said, sauntering into the ring room of the SGC with a teasing smile on her lips.

"Honey, how did you get back here so fast?" Sam asked, and ran forward to embrace her daughter without waiting for an answer.

"Large pile of Naquadah and a transport ship: fast combo, really," her daughter said as they hugged. They stood there in silence for a moment.

"Seriously, though," Buffy said as they stepped apart, "I don't know if Teal'c made it out alright. The jump went wrong and we ended up just inside the atmosphere of Tartarus. I had to fly like a mad woman to make it out through the stones and crap that was melting all around me."

"The big guy will pull through. He always does," Jack said, but Sam knew that although no one showed it they were all equally worried. Fortunately, she at least had her daughter back home safely. She had worried about letting Buffy go, knowing the moment that Teal'c had volunteered the Jaffa for the mission that he'd entrust Buffy with the job that he, due to his position of leadership, couldn't do himself: flying the transport to the moon. She hadn't told Buffy before she left, because she had held out some fragile hope that her daughter would not do something like that.

An Airman ran into the room, skidded to a stop to salute her and Jack, then turned towards her daughter. "Miss Carter, there is an urgent call for you on the subspace transmitter. Some sort of emergency."

Buffy didn't even blink or complain; she just broke into a mad, world-record-breaking dash out of the room.

"Airman, explain!" Jack commanded.

"Yes, sir. About 5 minutes ago we received an emergency broadcast from Chulak. Master Bra'tac called for Miss Carter or Mister Teal'c," the Airman explained.

"This is bad," Daniel said. Sam could only nod.

"We should see if there is something we can do," Jonas suggested. Jack nodded, and they ran in the direction of the subspace communicator room.

---------

"Bra'tac, I'm here," Buffy called out as soon as she could grab the mike and speak.

"It is good to hear your voice, my friend. As Teal'c bade me before your attack on Anubis, I have set the fleet to protecting Chulak. And it was well I did. Over the last half hour several of Anubis' ships have arrived in the system, attempting to get into position for an attack on us. We can hold them off for now, but if a fleet comes -- and I believe it is sure to come -- then Chulak will burn. Wait. . . .

"More ships are arriving. By the Gods, there are hundreds! I am sorry. I hoped you could help us, but against this there is no hope. Live well, little warrior. I will see you in the afterlife. I die free," Bra'tac said and cut the transmission.

Buffy turned to see her mom and Jack standing in the doorway. They had arrived a few moments ago and couldn't have heard much of Bra'tac's message. "We've gotta go and rescue him. If he and the Rebels leave through the gate or on their ships, Anubis might be satisfied with a complete surrender, rather than planetary obliteration," she said and immediately thought about the path from the secured communications room to the armory, then to the gate.

"You heard her. Carter, get your boys in gear and get that thick-headed old Jaffa to safety. He's gotta learn that the Rebellion needs him to live a little longer," Jack said, then sighed. "I would have liked having Teal'c here now," he said.

"It'll be at least an hour before the Ha'tak is due back. We should move up the schedule for getting a communicator aboard, sir," her mom suggested. Buffy walked out past Jack and her mom, finding Jonas and Daniel standing right behind them.

"Come on then, SG-1," her mom said. Together they headed out to get ready, while Jack went to get the Gate ready.

---------

The "gate open" warning sirens were blaring as Buffy hurried into the room, again dressed in her Jaffa uniform but carrying a regular rifle, a zat, and a couple of big knives instead of a staff weapon. She didn't stop to wait for any goodbyes from Jack or for the rest of SG-1 to gather. Buffy just continued through the gate at a brisk jog.

The universe of stars and the tunnel of light flared in front of her eyes, and Buffy emerged into a firefight. Several of what looked like Anubis' loyalists were huddled around the gate, cut off from their route home by the SGC dialing in, she guessed. Several groups of Rebel Jaffa -- her allies -- were firing on the improvised cover of a tumbled-over pillar. Several wounded, dying, or dead Jaffa were strewn on the ground all around. She tried to ignore the gruesome image in front of her eyes and instead reacted immediately, unleashing her capacity for violence with casual ease. Moving so fast she was almost a blur, she hammered into a rising Jaffa, flinging him into the air towards the firing Rebels. Another one tried to turn to meet her assault, but she easily knocked him away before quick-drawing her zat and firing once into the last one conscious or alive at the position she had just attacked.

It was clear that several other places around the Stargate were occupied by attacking Anubis loyalists. Buffy ducked behind the pillar to avoid a couple of blasts coming her way. The by now familiar sound of someone exiting the gate alerted her to her mom's team arriving. "Get behind cover!" she yelled.

Thankfully, SG-1 was in good shape and experienced with combat at a Stargate. Daniel headed for the DHD with Jonas, while her mom threw herself down next to Buffy. They both got their rifles ready. Her mom squinted, then fired a short burst of rounds from her P-90, easily taking out a Jaffa in spite of his cover. Again, the precision of the human rifles proved superior. Buffy followed suit.

"Daniel, Anubis might try to dial in again. Dial out to the SGC; we need to keep the connection up," her mom yelled.

Buffy put her rifle against her shoulder and laid down a hail of gunfire to keep the Jaffa behind their cover as Daniel tried to dial the DHD. Jonas and her mom followed suit immediately after. With a satisfying 'whoosh!' the gate opened.

The firefight continued to be a stand-off for a while; then there were several staff blasts from the bushes behind Anubis' Jaffa, and the fight quickly and messily ended. Al'rak -- the Jaffa who had made her welcome in the first Jaffa camp she stayed at, way before her adventure with the Prometheus and the exile on Vindgloed – came out of the bushes, followed by the rest of the surprise relief force "Hello, young warrior. I am glad to see you again," he said.

"Wish it was under better circumstances, old friend. I'd have thought Master Bra'tac would have had you up in the sky fighting with him," Buffy said in Goa'uld.

"He did. My ship was damaged and we had to land it nearby. We are under heavy attack. You should not be here. You are in danger, Buffy Summers," Al'rak said.

"Friend, I know you have sworn to protect me. Right now I don't need your protection: I need your help. Bra'tac is feeling his age and wishes to go out in a blaze of glory. But it is before his time. We can't afford losing him right now," she said rapidly.

"I see. What do you propose?" Al'rak asked.

"A ruse, and it will anger him. I will send out orders making it look like they come from Teal'c, so that he'll be forced to withdraw. We need to leave this world and let the other Jaffa surrender. That way, maybe Anubis will let them live. We should let anyone who wants to do so relocate off-planet, to whatever safe location we can get them to agree on. Mom, you know any semi-safe place right now that could take up a butt-load of refugees?" she asked.

Her mom looked lost in concentration for a while. "Yeah, there is one place. We could send them to the Gamma site. It's safe, stocked, and one of our fallback points," her mom suggested.

Buffy grimaced. It seemed her mom hadn't yet realized what Buffy had guessed the minute she had heard Bra'tac talk about Anubis attacking Chulak. "No, we're gonna need that ourselves soon enough," she said bluntly.

Her mom stared at her for a while, then nodded, "Okay, then I guess we could send them to Harlan and his underground complex. He needs the help anyway, and no one would expect them there."

"Harlan?" Buffy asked. She had no idea who her mom was talking about.

"The guy that made robotic copies of me, Jack, Daniel and Teal'c," her mom replied.

It seemed there was yet another story she hadn't heard yet. Buffy made a mental note to ask at a better time, "O-o-okay, maybe someone should go give him a heads up."

"I'll go," Daniel said, "I remember the coordinates. I'll dial them after this sequence. I guess you guys have somewhere to be."

"We really do. Al'rak, can you get me somewhere where I could reach Bra'tac?" Buffy asked.

The big Jaffa nodded.

"Alright, Jonas, you, and I are going to try and convince as many civilians as we can that they should evacuate," her mom said.

"I'll come as soon as I'm done lying to Bra'tac," Buffy said, and followed Al'rak.

---------

"In here, Slayer," Al'rak said.

"Thanks," Buffy replied, while she felt a shiver go down her spine. It had been years since she had been addressed that way. It had been one of Spike's favorite names for her. She guessed Teal'c had shared her history with Al'rak at some point in the past. The Jaffa pointed her to a still-working comm console in his downed Al'kesh. She activated it and dialed in the latest communication codes used by the Jaffa Rebels. It helped being the right-hand girl of the Rebellion's leader.

"Chulak calling Bra'tac. Please reply, a.s.a.p.," she said, and after a few moments repeated her message.

There was significant background noise on the reply when it arrived, "Buffy Summers, I am surprised to hear your voice." Bra'tac said.

"Bra'tac, listen, I returned here with Teal'c. He's headed to the main city to proclaim what I am telling you. Out of necessity the Rebels have to withdraw now and leave what will survive of Chulak to Anubis. It's the only way to stop him from destroying everything. You have to order the fleet to regroup at a safe location, while we take everyone on the ground through the gate. However, if you could hold off Anubis' landing parties for a while, that would be helpful," she lied.

"Why would he order a retreat from his home world?" Bra'tac asked.

"Because it _is_ his home world. The False God won't live for long, but for his reign to end, Master Bra'tac, the Rebels cannot throw lives and ships away. It is your duty to live to fight another day. Anything else would just be abandoning your post and your duty. We fight for each other, Master Bra'tac, but if we are to do that, there was to be someone alive to do the fighting," she said.

There was a long pause. "Fine, Buffy Summers. I will comply with... your idea. I know that Teal'c would never have done things this way or sent you to tell me something like this if he was truly here. One day, we will have words about your attempt at deception, but until then I have things to do. I will be at the carcass of Ra's first colony with the fleet, awaiting word," Bra'tac said.

"Okay... And Bra'tac, thank you," she said, while her mind figured out that Bra'tac had meant he would take the fleet to Abydos. It had been burned by Anubis, but had been slowly rebuilt with a hidden base for the Jaffa at Teal'c's suggestion.

"Just rescue as many as you can, child. I fear that no matter what your thought may be, Anubis might not show any mercy at all," Bra'tac said.

"I know," she agreed. The connection was overwhelmed again by static and she pressed the off button.

"Listen, we have to prepare for Deathglider strafing runs at the Stargate. The enemy will try to hurt as many refugees as they can to slow us down," she told Al'rak.

"We have an idea. Teal'c gave us the Deathglider weapon and showed us how the Tau'ri rigged it so that it could be fired by hand. We do not all have Teal'c's strength, but we do have the weapons, and my Jaffa are willing to use them. We just have to go and get them," he said.

"Great idea, let's go," Buffy agreed.

---------

Sam looked out over the huge crowd of Jaffa warriors and their families, all running in a more or less orderly retreat towards the gate. It was a testament to the hardship and disciplined nature of Jaffa life that everyone seemed to take the relocation in stride. But then again, given what Teal'c had told her about Apophis' history of losing many battles against Ra and having to relocate his home world, maybe the Jaffa of Chulak had no problem with leaving their frigid forested lands. But when she looked at their faces she realized that wasn't really the case. She hoped Daniel had gotten everything explained to Harlan and that the crazy robot didn't do anything too stupid.

Suddenly, there was a series of explosions in the distance before she even heard the buzz of a passing Deathglider. For a moment she wished she had taken the time to bring more men, or even swung by the SGC armory for SAMs of some sort, but there was nothing she could do except watch as a trio of Deathgliders caused death and devastation in the ranks of the fleeing Jaffa. Several of the more level-headed warriors knelt and fired their staff weapons after the attackers, but none of the shots even came close. She even tried firing her rifle, more to do something than actually expecting to cause damage.

There was a flaming explosion in front of her and Sam was thrown on her ass, dirt spraying up all around her. She coughed a bit and got up a bit shaken. The shot had nearly taken out the DHD. Anubis' followers had probably figured out that they didn't control the gate and were now concerned about taking it out.

She watched as another two deathgliders joined the three from earlier as they swung around in a curve, heading in for another attack run from the end of the refugee train towards the gate and herself. She closed her eyes for a moment, considering if she really wanted to see more people roasted alive without her being able to do much about it. She wished she was at home, where they had at least gotten around to building as many F-302s and her F-305s as they could manage with their budget and time constraints. There was a sound of rumbling explosions overhead. Sam looked up in surprise, expecting to maybe see friendly Deathgliders. Instead, she saw a stream of energy bolts being fired from the forest that surrounded the path for the gate. Several streams, actually. One Deathglider after another was picked from the sky.

One survived, though, damaged but still able to maneuver and fly. She watched as it picked up speed and started to dive. Right for her.

"Take cover!" she yelled and tried to push a Jaffa and his wife through the gate when she looked over her shoulder and realized she was about to stand in the path of a hypersonic aircraft. For a moment she could see the Jaffa inside the cockpit looking like he was either screaming or laughing. Then there was only fire.

Sam was thrown against the steps to the Stargate. "I expected this to hurt more," she thought and opened her eyes. There was a huge pile of burning wreckage in a long furrow to her left. There were Jaffa wounded. Sam just checked herself before she tried getting up. "Jonas?" she asked.

"Pretty much in one piece, Colonel," her friend answered, his voice coming from the right side of the gate.

"Phew! Thought I lost you there," a happy-sounding Buffy said, walking over with a huge gun slung in a strap and held in her right hand. It looked insane to see her own daughter standing with a weapon as long as her and brandishing it like it was a paperweight.

"You did that?" she asked.

"Yeah. Couldn't let you go back on any promises, could I?" Buffy said. Sam smiled back and nodded.

"How are things going?" she asked.

"Bra'tac is covering our escape for as long as he can, before he heads to the hidey hole he and Teal'c set up," Buffy explained.

"You really think Anubis will show mercy?" she asked.

"God, no, and neither do the Jaffa, from what I can see here. But better lose a little now and fight again later than going out in some sort of blaze of glory," Buffy explained.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"So for now, I am this area's anti-aircraft gun. At least until I run out of power for my beauty here. This is nice work, mom," Buffy said.

"Thanks, but it is really just a salvaged Deathglider cannon with a power supply," she said.

"Ever considered hooking one up to one of your small naquadah generators?" Buffy asked, apparently capable of making small talk while she kept her eyes scanning the heavens above.

"Yeah, but that would be too heavy for . . . well, anyone but you," she said.

"Think about it. It would be a really big gun," Buffy said with a bright smile.

"Don't tell me that you have the same thing with weapons as you have for shoes?" she asked.

"God, no, you don't see me having several closets full of weapons that I take out just to try on and put away again, do you?" Buffy replied and lifted her gun as a ship appeared on the horizon.

"Well, I guess not, but then you have always had an unhealthy attraction to the SGC armory," she replied.

"Heh," Buffy said and looked increasingly focused. Sam chose not to say more for the moment. Instead, she went back to helping Jonas get people and wounded to the gate.

---------

"Buffy, we're leaving!" Sam called out. She was out of ammo and the Deathgliders were coming in ever bigger swarms. There were some stragglers left from the fleeing Jaffa, but Sam was afraid with Bra'tac gone they'd be subject to bombardment at any moment.

"Buffy, this is not a waiting game," she said. A huge bolt of orange energy confirmed it. The bottom of a Ha'tak appeared out of the clouds.

"Now!" she commanded, as Buffy looked indecisive, her eyes pained by the sight of the still arriving refugees running for their only chance at survival.

"But . . ." Buffy said looking towards a nearby family.

"No, you don't have the luxury of dying in some grand gesture either. You still have things to do. Through the gate, now!" she commanded again. Buffy looked at her with utter despair in her eyes, but did as she was told and ran for the gate. Sam backed in as well. Jonas had gone ahead. Only one or two Jaffa were left, and there could only be moments before the gate closed.

They were surrounded by the blue swirls of the wormhole before they emerged underground at Harlan's. Sam heard the robot give his normal greeting, but she didn't have time for much except saying, "Quickly, someone dial Earth."

Daniel nodded and started dialing. Buffy was talking to Al'rak in Goa'uld for a while before the gate opened. "See you soon," her daughter said.

"Sorry to dump these people and run, but we need to get back to Earth and report in. We'll come help with the resettlement and everything soon," she promised.

Buffy was thanked profusely by several Jaffa, but she also seemed to be in a hurry to get back to Earth.

As they arrived at the SGC Sam leaned over and asked, "Why the hurry to get back here? Didn't you want to help get things settled?"

"I would love to, but Al'rak and that Harlan fellow have to handle it. I have a bad feeling that Chulak will only be the start," Buffy said.

"Welcome back," Teal'c said in his deep voice as they walked down the gangway. Jack was not far behind the Jaffa, coming in from the corridor outside.

"Good to see you again," Sam said with both Daniel and Jonas echoing the sentiment. Jack nodded.

"I am so tired," Buffy complained.

"Ah-ah-ah, there is paper work to do before any rest. But first, everyone over to Fraiser's. I am sure you're looking forward to yet another examination," Jack said.

"Oh, yeah. Say, don't we get an overdose of X-rays or something from all the pictures they snap of us?" Buffy asked.

"Actually, the scanner is not an X-ray. I know because I studied the manual of its operation. I am considering getting field medic training," Jonas said.

"Good idea. I've had a couple of courses and a butt-load of on-the-job training, but maybe I should get a bit more formal instruction," Buffy said as she left with Jonas, talking about the advantages of a medic on a field team.

"So?" Jack asked.

"Not a total disaster, sir, unless you're a landowner on Chulak. We had to take the Rebellion off Chulak, but I don't know if it will be enough," she admitted.

"I am sorry," she told Teal'c.

"It was a wise decision. One day, we will return to our land and own it as free men," he replied.

"She is getting to be very good at all of this," Daniel said.

"Buffy even talked Bra'tac into not throwing his life away," she said.

"Good for her," Jack said, and after a moment or two, "and him too, of course."

"I shall try and make contact with him soon. Where is he?" Teal'c asked.

"He's with your fleet. Al'rak is leading the refugees from Chulak. Buffy said something about you'd all meet up at your hidey hole," she said.

"Ah," Teal'c replied and walked away looking not pleased, but at least not angry.

"Me thinks he's got a secret," Jack said.

"You'd be right, sir, but that is the prerogative of foreign powers. It's up to us to decide if we want to try and find out what it is," she said.

"Jack, the Jaffa are probably not trying to hide it from us. It probably just hasn't occurred to them to tell us yet. With Jaffa, you often just have to ask," Daniel said.

"Nah, not now, on both counts. You should both get some rest. Hammond and I want to address what threat Anubis might represent to us as soon as you two have been checked out and caught at least a few minutes of sleep. By the way, Carter, your dad has brought us a few bits of good news," Jack said.

"What news?" she asked.

"Tartarus is an asteroid belt. Oh, and the Tok'ra know the location of a library of the Ancients," Jack said.

"Really, maybe we could use it to find Atlantis," Daniel suggested.

"Gee, Daniel that hadn't occurred to me," Jack said.

---------

Buffy lay on her office cot and slept fitfully.

_"Here we are again, full-on sense and surround-sound dreaming. Hello, prophecy!" Buffy thought and looked around. She was standing in what looked like an abandoned version of the SGC with the Stargate open._

_"I don't work that way," the Universe -- looking like Tara again -- told her._

_"That'd be nice," Buffy said and faced it._

_"You're at a crossroads. You have a duty. But there is great danger. I am sorry for that, but you have to do something soon. It will be hard, but I promise it will make sense and be meaningful," the Universe explained, smiling one of those shy smiles that Buffy had always found endearing in Tara._

_"So we're back to cryptic?" she asked._

_"Go through the gate and let your abilities show you a glimpse of the future." Buffy blinked, and the Tara copy disappeared. She walked to the gate and stepped through it._

_She saw a fleet so large she had never believed it possible. She saw it hovering over the Earth. She saw their brave defense and then she saw her destiny._

Buffy woke with a gasp and looked at the time. It was nearly midnight. She checked her hair in her mirror, correcting a few details, before she got up and headed out.

---------

General Hammond wanted to be at home with his wife. He wanted to be relaxing in a chair with a good biography or sleeping in his actual bed. But with SG-1 and Jack off looking into a library of the Ancients with Jacob as a guide, the Jaffa Rebellion in a rout, and now Anubis dialing in every few minutes blocking their access to the Stargate network, he was not going to get any rest soon. He knew he could be heading for the worst battles of his career. He had already given out the first orders of that battle. The entire US and Russian military apparatus was on high alert. The Prometheus was getting prepped for another battle. Their meager but still existent space-going fleet was ready to launch at a few minutes' notice. Yet, as he stood in his office overlooking the darkened gate room with the blue light of the wormhole hidden behind their iris and watched by both his solders and his scientists, he could only think about how he still couldn't get himself to expect it all to be enough.

"Sir," a young girl's voice said. He turned around in the darkened room. In front of him stood Buffy Summers. She said, "I have a plan to destroy Anubis when he comes."


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21:**

Buffy watched as the Stargate opened its blue vortex and SG-1 rushed through, carrying Jack. She wandered down. Buffy knew she should have run, but she had other things on her mind -- like the papers she had just signed. She wasn't looking forward to telling Teal'c about that little gem.

"He did it again," she heard Daniel tell General Hammond, while her mom and Teal'c took Jack towards the infirmary.

Jonas walked towards her. "What did he do again?" Buffy asked.

"General O'Neill had to take the Library of the Ancients into his mind again, or Anubis' Jaffa would have gained its knowledge instead. Your mother said that he'd have a few days before he'd start remembering their knowledge and hopefully be able to tell us the path to Atlantis. And if we can reach the Asgard in time he'll never be in any danger. If we don't reach them in time, the knowledge will destroy his mind. This has all happened to SG-1 before," Jonas explained.

"Ouch, I better go see him then," she said and dashed through the crowded halls, catching up with Jack, her mom and Teal'c just as he was sitting down to get examined by Janet.

"What happened? I heard about the library thing from Jonas," she asked.

"Jack had to load another copy of the Library of the Ancients into his head before we blew it up. Anubis' Deathgliders were hammering us pretty badly back there," her mom explained.

Buffy leaned in and looked into Jack's eyes. He stared back at her. Buffy could see no difference. "You'll be fine," she said.

"What makes you so sure?" Jack asked almost defiantly.

"Well, because Thor will come through for us," she replied.

"Ah, sure, because he's always there when we need him. Did someone forget to tell you that the Asgard haven't exactly been responding to any messages for a while now?" Jack said.

"Someone did, but I have faith in the universe's ability to provide," Buffy said.

"Oh, sure, _faith_," Jack said, as though the word made his mouth taste bitter. Buffy nodded and stepped back. Her mom started talking to Jack about his plans for the next few days. Buffy tossed her head sideways and looked at Teal'c.

"Teal'c, a word in private?" she asked.

Teal'c frowned for a moment, then followed her into the halls.

Buffy felt a bit nervous as she said, "This is not about me leaving your command -- you have to understand that. I am still working for you, but General Hammond has asked if he could borrow me for a mission that will take me away from here for a little while. I won't be leaving for a few days yet, but I might be gone for a week or so after. Is that alright?" She kept the conversation in Goa'uld to limit the number of listeners.

Teal'c studied her. "What are you going to do, Buffy?" he asked.

Buffy looked at the man who had sworn to protect her. The person who, outside of her mom, had shared the most with her in her life this side of the Quantum Mirror. She decided that she could tell him. "I'm going to slay Anubis. I am going to fulfill a part of my destiny. I might not win, but I am sure gonna try," she said.

"Then I will come with you," he stated.

"No, you can't. Trust me, Teal'c, I'm the only one who can go this time. I don't like it. I sure wish it was different, because I know this all sounds like pride or maybe even arrogance, but it's that time when I have to do things like that. Or so I've been told, anyway," she said, not loving this return to the age of feeling an immense burden on her shoulders. Still, she was growing up, and that also meant accepting life's burdens and still managing to keep moving under the weight.

Teal'c studied her for a while, then straightened and gave her a Jaffa salute. "I wish you good luck, Buffy Anne Summers Carter," he said.

"Thank you," she said, just as Daniel came walking down the hall towards them. Buffy didn't want to lie to anyone about the conversation or her mission, and so -- ignoring the wondering look from Daniel -- she just nodded and smiled as she passed him and headed back towards her office. She still had a lot of work to do.

---------

"Buffy! Hey, Buffy," the voice of her mom tore Buffy from her dreams. She sat up in her small cot. She was still in her office, probably with a massive case of bed hair. It had been a long night, calling around and talking to the people General Hammond had put her in touch with. She didn't have clearances for half the stuff she had needed, and she had even needed to talk to the President. Bleary-eyed, she looked up at her mom.

"We're leaving in a little while. Jack came up with a set of coordinates. The Tel'tak should be ready within the hour," her mom explained.

"I'm not coming," she said. Buffy watched as her mom, who had been half-turned towards the door, stopped in her tracks. She had avoided telling her mom for a while now. Buffy was pretty sure that her mom would not think it was a good idea to do what she was planning.

"What! Why?" Sam asked.

"Teal'c and General Hammond have me doing another mission," she explained.

"It can probably wait. We're going to find Atlantis, Buffy. This is the most important mission we have right now. With what the city might hide, we would have a chance against Anubis," her mom said.

"I know, and I'd like to go, I really would. Not to see Jack slowly go nuts, but to see the lost city. It would be worth a look to find a real Ancient city. But I can't. I have to help with the defense here. Teal'c has loaned me out to the Air Force. They need all the F-302 pilots they can get, in case Anubis comes before you get back. Besides, Jonas and Daniel are all the Ancient experts you need. Teal'c is both a good pilot and a fighter. Jack can probably help for a while, too. Basically, you don't need me on this one," she said.

Her mom studied her and stepped closer. "It's more than that, isn't it?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I feel like I have to be here. It's an instinct. I know, you don't trust in stuff like that, but I do," Buffy explained.

"Buffy, I trust you. If you think is where you need to be, and you've got orders, then I have nothing to say on the matter. Please just try to stay safe until it's all over. We'll be coming back with all the help we can get," Sam said.

"He might not get here for weeks to come," Buffy said, trying to sound hopeful.

"Or he might be here in an hour. Just promise me you won't do something stupid... Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Just don't take chances with this guy, Buffy. He's not a typical Goa'uld," her mom said.

"I promise. And I know. Besides, with your DNA how could I possibly do anything stupid?" she said and grinned, even though the smile that followed on both their faces didn't quite seem to warm her as much as she had hoped. Buffy knew what was coming. And she knew what had to happen, up to a point. From there on, it was all up to her. And she had no idea what that meant in this universe.

"Okay, at least come say goodbye," her mom said.

Buffy glanced at her watch. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to tell everyone I wish them a good trip. I'm expected at Patterson in an hour. With brushing my hair, driving like a mad woman and security at both ends, I'll be lucky to make it in time," she apologized. She felt a short stab of pain in her mind. She still didn't like lying to anyone.

---------

Buffy closed her cell phone. Her mom and the rest of SG-1 had been gone for nearly 2 days. There had been no word so far. She was standing in the conference room overlooking the Stargate. The Iris was closed and the seemingly constantly dialed gate was casting a blue afterglow over the unlit room. Every few minutes something caused the Iris to shudder as a heavy object -- most likely a mass-accelerated object -- hit it. The attacks had been going on at intervals of only a few seconds for nearly twenty-eight hours straight. It was barely five in the morning. She had been woken a half hour earlier. Their early warning system, satellites placed in a grid around the solar system with subspace relays and sensors, a Tau'ri and Tok'ra joint invention, had warned them of a group of objects passing through, heading towards Earth. General Hammond came into the room.

"Still no word from your mother. I don't know if anyone told you, but I put her in charge before they left in case of Jack becoming incapacitated," he said.

"I didn't get to say goodbye. I think I am regretting that a little, now," Buffy said.

"Why didn't you? They didn't leave in a rush -- not with all the equipment Jack had packed for them," General Hammond noted wryly.

"I'm not sure, I guess I just couldn't stand there and tell them all goodbye to their faces without showing how I really felt," she said.

"Are you afraid?" he asked.

"Always, for them. Not so much for me. Well, not at the time. It kinda helps when you know what awaits you. It's funny, really. Once I would have needed nothing else to go into battle with a clear mind, but now I'm also afraid for my own life. I guess I feel like I deserve to live a little, too. I lost that for a while when I was still in my previous life. I just hope my plan is sound," she said.

"And everyone at the White House thinks you're right. I understand why you didn't want SG-1 to know. They won't like it when they hear about it," he said.

"Sir, sometimes it is easier to ask for forgiveness instead of worrying everyone by explaining. They wouldn't have been able to go do what I think they have to do, if they also had to think about me going into mortal danger. George?" she asked.

The general turned and looked at her. "I've made out a will and recorded a few personal messages, just in case. It's all in my office," Buffy explained.

"I'll make sure they get it. Please, try to make sure I don't have to, though," he said.

"Weren't you going up with the Prometheus, sir?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, I can't: the attacks on the Gate and the need for me to coordinate the entire fleet demands that I stay here. I put Colonel Pendergast in command of it. He has been briefed on your operation," General Hammond explained.

"My operation?" she asked, a bit surprised.

"Apparently, the President has been a private fan of yours for a while. When he and the Joint Chiefs read your brief they decided that you should be in command of the Air Group. You'll be calling the shots up there until the assault starts; then the regular chain of command applies. You'll be flying in Major Mitchell's wing. You're familiar with him from before?" General Hammond gave her a curious glance as she mutely nodded. The nice older fighter pilot had been by for dinner after the operation against Anubis' mothership. She had been blushing that entire night. However, Laws of Man and Nature had kept her from even considering flirting, and there had been nothing more to it. She had met him a couple of times since, and he hadn't triggered any more babbling or blushes -- just almost. He still had all those man parts that made him straight-up yummy, but she had just decided to try and aim for something a bit more in her age category for her first serious boyfriend in this universe.

Her watch beeped. It was time to leave for Patterson. "I gotta go, sir. Thanks for having me," she said.

"Godspeed, Buffy," George called out as she left.

"Thank you, sir," she replied.

---------

Buffy looked out the window of the helicopter General Hammond had ordered to pick her up. It was still morning. The active sound suppressors made the noise of the ride seem like a sedate sea of white noise. There was a click and the voice of the pilot cut in. "Ma'am, I just got a message from the mountain. They said to tell you that the sensors have picked up hints of decelerating objects near Jupiter. They're counting over 30 contacts," the pilot said.

She glanced over at his name tag. "Ellison, what you just heard is top secret. Understood?" Buffy said. Her mom and Jack had spent days drilling her in protocol in these situations.

"I am cleared, Ma'am," the pilot explained.

"Still, you cannot share this information with anyone," she insisted.

"Understood," the pilot replied. Buffy looked out over the hills and valleys as they flew towards Patterson. In her head she ran a few calculations based on her experiences and what she had been taught about large-ship-class hyperdrives. Anubis would be in orbit within half an hour to an hour. Being a Goa'uld, he would then do one of two things: demand surrender, or attack immediately. Usually Anubis had been a more calm and thinking Goa'uld, and she would have tipped him for making a big show proclaiming 'You shall surrender to me!', but after what she had seen on Chu'lak she had to face it. He was just as likely to come in shooting from all cannons. They had to meet him in orbit. She watched as they swept over a hill and came into the Patterson Airspace. In the distance she recognized the many airstrips. Buffy took a deep breath and tried to find some peace. It might be her last for a long while.

---------

Herak looked up from his station. "My Lord, the fleet is forming around us. The Tau'ri homeworld lies at your feet. The Jaffa Ha'tak has abandoned its allies and the Earthers have not risen to challenge us, yet. Neither have the Asgard arrived to give us challenge. We will arrive in orbit of that ball of mud within half an hour," he said.

"Tell my fleet to prepare all bombers and cannons. We will scour their world with fire. We will return them to their primitive state and let them return to the proper worship of their God," Anubis proclaimed. Herak felt his heart warm at the thought of destroying the human home-world and hopefully seeing the Stargate Command and its SG-1 burn.

"I shall relay your commands, my lord," he said and bowed deeply, unable to keep from smiling.

---------

Cam was not feeling all that awake yet, but he knew he had to be soon. They had gotten the call an hour ago. He looked around. All the world's most top-secret squadrons were ready for their deployments. He, however, was more concerned about the special mission his Blue squadron had pulled. They were the oldest and consequently the most experienced group of F-302 pilots on the planet. But that didn't stop his guys from being bewildered at their orders. The airfield had been filling with F-302s, all of them fresh off the assembly lines, but his squadron had been ordered over to another hangar yesterday, even though he had had his hands full with instructing all sorts of new pilots arriving from all around -- most of them having only had simulator time on the F-302. Still, there they had been in a hangar, being presented with the brand new F-305s standing in front of several Jaffa Deathgliders. A bit later General Hammond actually told him what was going on. He had been shocked.

"Seriously, Major, why are we here?" Reynolds his second in command asked.

"Listen, people, I got our orders a few minutes ago. We're leading the charge against the Goa'uld fleet, a fleet that is moving into orbit at the moment. We're a part of a strategy called 'the Stake plan'. We're the stake. When the fleet comes into orbit, the other squadrons and the carriers are going to make an attack run. We're then going to use the confusion and these modified deathglider to fly towards each of the motherships. A Deathglider is capable of flying remotely and that is what we're there to do: guide them in remotely. As you can see, the pilot and co-pilot area of the Deathgliders have been filled with our technology. On the pilot seat is an F-302 hyperdrive set to run for a few microseconds on its own small naquadriah reactor, and on the back seat is a naquadah-enhanced tactical nuclear device. We're there to deliver this to the front door safely and launch them on command. The targets will be loaded into your computers as we approach the battle. That way, we should be able to take out several of the opposing motherships. Now, your navigator will be in charge of the Deathglider, including the final release of the nuke and the firing of its drive. At that point, our carriers -- and hopefully our allies -- will turn back around for what we hope is just clean-up," he said.

"Finally, there is a footnote. For this mission we will be under the command of another officer, who should be arriving shortly. Apparently, his call sign is Slayer. He will be flying the attack on the main mothership. This has been decided at the top of the chain of command. If all else fails, Slayer has to reach his target," he said.

"_Her_ target," a young female voice corrected him. Cam turned and saw Colonel Carter's daughter, who was supposedly some sort of operative for the SGC. He wondered why she was there.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I am sorry to interrupt, but the Slayer is a she," Buffy Carter told him.

Cam realized that the girl was in a tiny flight suit and carried one of the F-305 flight helmets. It had the call sign 'Slayer' printed on it. "You're commanding my squadron?" he said.

"No, actually I was planning on not disrupting your routine and have you lead your squadron. I only need you to fly with me until I break off and go for the huge main mothership with my Deathglider drone," Buffy explained.

The blond with her gently curling hair in a ponytail turned and addressed his men and women. "Listen, people, today we're going on a vital but highly dangerous mission. We're literally saving the world. Everyone in the world is going to wake up tomorrow and they will be alive and free because of what you do today. We must not fail." As she spoke, hundreds of F-302s and even a few more of the new F-305s started taking off behind her. "So, with that in mind, I wish you all godspeed and my hope that you will come back safely," Buffy said and headed for the lead F-305, pulling out what looked like a flash drive from a pocket.

"Go," he yelled, and his squadron ran for their ships. Technicians who had been scrambling around the Deathgliders threw some switches and ran off as the Deathgliders came to a hover with a hum. Cam -- or 'Shaft', as he thought of himself while in a cockpit -- crawled into position while trying to get his head in the game. He radioed his men, making sure everyone had done their pre-flight checks before signaling the tower that Blue Squadron was ready to go.

He heard over the radio, "Tower, this is Slayer, staying on Blue Channel. Ready to taxi." He wondered what Samantha Carter was thinking about her daughter going into battle while dragging along a multi-megaton nuclear device.

---------

"The moment we get out of hyperspace, we have to radio the SGC. If Anubis comes after us, we'll be obliterated before we reach Atlantis," Samantha said.

"Which will be soon, Colonel Carter," Bra'tac said. Sam looked over her shoulder to glance at Jack, who was modifying the ring platform of their Tel'tak.

Daniel added, "The contact we had before leaving Talnosh said that the Tok'ra had intel that Anubis was in flight, heading for Earth. Our world could be under attack already."

"I hope we'll make it in time," she said.

---------

Buffy felt the ship accelerate with a roar. The feeling of exhilaration was almost like her first day in her bird again. For a moment or two she allowed herself to revel in the feeling of freedom, as her F-305 went from Earthbound to heading into the upper atmosphere.

"Come in, Slayer: SGC on the line for you," Walter's voice came to her over the radio.

"Go, SGC," she replied.

"Slayer, Team One is inbound. Arrival time is unknown. The Commander in Chief has confirmed that you have full release of the ball. Stake is a go," Walter explained.

"Roger and out," she replied.

"Slayer to Blue Squadron," she said.

"Go, Slayer," Cam said.

"The other squadrons are about to start their run. We have release of our payload. Set all weapons hot and prepare yourselves. We're flying low through the upper atmo until we're horizontal with the battle. Come at the motherships from the front, as their main weapons are bottom mounted. Watch out for sudden launches of gliders. After delivery of payload, pull away; from there on, you're under the command of Colonel Pendergast on the Prometheus or the SGC. We're going radio silent after you receive your targets, so until we begin the actual attack run, just follow the leader," she said and put her 305 in the front. They flew underneath the battle overhead in space. She used the relayed information from the Prometheus and the SGC to pick and distribute their targets. No one exchanged any radio chatter anymore.

Overhead, a combination of the barely flight-ready Daedalus and the quite powerful Prometheus was teaching the Goa'uld about human space technology, while the Rebel Jaffa Ha'tak they had sent on a slingshot course through hyperspace immediately upon detecting Anubis appeared above their enemy and loosed its weaponry. Buffy wished they had gotten a few days more to prepare, as she'd have liked to have the promised Tok'ra Ha'tak waiting around, hidden under its cloaking device.

She noticed that they had passed under the battle and pulled her stick back and pointed the nose of her ship towards the sky. The faint blue-black around her turned all black, and she slipped from the Earth's gravity well, feeling the drop in weight quite clearly. It was amazing how the stars paled in the reflection of the Earth, but she didn't have time to appreciate the scenery. With the Deathglider and its precious payload shadowing her every move she turned and saw Anubis' fleet poised to obliterate their meager defenses and then crush the Earth.

Buffy put her engines at the best speed she could without losing the tenuous radio connection to the remote interface of the glider behind her. It had all been her plan. An old idea she had carried around since her mom and Cam had made the attack run on Anubis' super mothership and destroyed his special weapon. She had kept it in her mind, wondering if there was a way for Anubis to stop it, but in the end, with her vision having shown her part of the future, she had proposed it a few days earlier to General Hammond and then via a teleconference to the Joint Chiefs. It had been adopted, tacky name and all. It was hoped that their enlarged wing could significantly reduce the enemy number, and maybe even kill Anubis.

She looked at their enemy, hoping that they wouldn't detect her squadron's approach and intent before it was too late. Fortunately, the gliders weren't known for their jump capacity, so she hoped that would at least keep Anubis from guessing their plan too early on.

---------

Herak watched as the sensors of the fleet showed another of the human and traitor Jaffa groups attempting an attack in their vessels. A small group of their craft and gliders were speeding for the fleet. He didn't need to inform his lord about every detail, and so he just dispatched a glider wing from a nearby mothership to destroy them.

---------

Buffy saw enemy gliders approach. This was when things started to get interesting. "This is the Slayer, begin the attack run. Break and attack. I repeat, break and attack. Stay safe, people," she said over the radio, and turned off, heading for Anubis' ship. All around her -- with her mom's modified naquadah reactor-driven guns already firing small but rapid bolts of orange at their enemy -- Blue squadron did as they were told.

Buffy yanked her ship right, avoiding a pair of bolts from a Deathglider. She turned her ship on the side, then fired the counter thrusters. The glider's bolts missed again and it swept into her flight path, straight into her line of fire. A bolt of death was already on the way, her fingers having followed her instinctive drive to fight and triggered the weapons at the right moment. She smiled as she noted out of the corner of her eye that her mom's shielding of their fighters was causing surprise and chagrin for the attacking gliders. Soon, however, Blue squadron drifted apart as they headed for their targets.

---------

Herak wondered about the tactics of the small squadron of enemies attacking from the other side of the battlefield. The squadron had split apart into small groups, each composed of one human and one Jaffa fighter. Even worse, it seemed they had made short work of the squadron he had sent to destroy them. Each group was headed straight for a mothership. He wondered if they were going to futilely attack a mothership, just like the rest of the ragtag band they were already fighting off on the other side of the battlefield. He considered if he should order more gliders to fight them off but decided to let the anti-glider weaponry on each mothership handle it. He trusted his commanders to do the right thing with such a pathetic challenge.

---------

Buffy dove in between two motherships, shooting another glider that had been heading for the withdrawing Earth fighters and carriers. She was heading straight for Anubis' ship at the center of the fleet. It was still surrounded by a pair of three Deathglider patrols. She hoped she could use the size of the enemy vehicle against it and deliver her hopefully crippling cargo to the area around the hangar, where blowing up stuff had seemed to do a lot of good the last time she had met one of those ships.

"Blue One, Cargo delivered," Cam's voice said. He was soon followed by several other members of Blue squadron reporting successes. Buffy smiled as the declarations were followed by massive explosions, each taking out a mothership completely with a massive nuclear explosion triggered by a Deathglider hyperjumping some place random inside their superstructure. Most vehicles weren't built to withstand internal damage of that type. She watched as the explosions of the motherships and their parts damaged several other motherships close by. All in all, it looked much better for a moment.

---------

"We need to slow down!" Daniel proclaimed as they emerged out of hyperspace close to Earth to gain them as much of a surprise arrival as possible. This, however, meant they were heading for Antarctica like a meteor.

"SGC, this is Colonel Carter. Come in, SGC," Sam said into their radio.

"Colonel Carter, this is the SGC: please report your status," Walter Harriman's voice came back over the radio.

"Sergeant, we've found Atlantis. It's here on Earth. We're going to its location now. However, if Anubis detects us he could figure out what we're up to. He had an agent working for him with us," she reported, thinking of the young Jaffa pilot who had flown them to Talnosh.

"Colonel, Anubis is currently being engaged by Earth's entire space fleet. He cannot come after you for the moment, but you won't have a lot of time," General Hammond's voice was the next to speak. Sam wished she could ask about Buffy, but she forced it from her mind. Her daughter, inexperienced or not, was through her abilities and inclinations a natural pilot, and as long as her daughter's luck held Buffy would be waiting for them back at the SGC with a few more stories of battles fought.

---------

"My Lord, the Tau'ri has destroyed parts of our fleet using suicide bombs. One of that attack group is coming for us," he reported.

"I see. Herak, show me a scan of the attacking vessel," his God commanded. Herak didn't understand what his God's machine showed his God, but he didn't need to, either. He just waited.

His Lord laughed. "Here are your orders, my First Prime," his lord said while making what looked like adjustments to their shield. "Retrieve the pilot with the transporters we acquired from the Asgard, and make sure to zat her until she cannot move. She is a tough one, so be careful, Herak. I want to speak with her when she is here. I have waited years for this moment," his Lord commanded.

"Yes, my Lord," Herak said and smiled grimly. The new transporters were untested, but he looked forward to testing them on his master's target.

---------

Buffy took a calming breath and looked around to make sure no Deathglider was sneaking up on her. She was about to launch her package, amazed she had actually made it that far, when there was a familiar noise and white shimmer. She found herself in what looked like a ring room. Several zats fired at once. Buffy fell over.

---------

She opened her eyes, her head throbbing from the effect of the zats fired at her. She could feel heavy manacles around her hands. She got up and looked around. She was chained to the floor of what she guessed was Anubis' throne room. The head asshole himself was seated on the throne, studying her impassively. Buffy felt a presence behind her and turned her head to see Herak, Anubis' first prime, looking exactly as Jack had described him: blond, angry, stupid and arrogant. She rattled her chains a little. They had made one mistake. Only her hands were shackled.

"I see you're awake, little Slayer. That is what they used to call you. Yes?" Anubis said.

Buffy looked over at the black-cloaked Star Wars Emperor-wannabe and said, "Yes, when they are my slayees, then sure. So, this is what you consider your home. Seems a little bleak. It could use some paint, maybe a throw pillow."

"My lord, a transport ship just appeared. It bears the signature of the ship carrying SG-1 on their quest for Atlantis," Herak said behind her.

"Send ships after them," Anubis commanded.

"Yes, my lord," Herak agreed.

"Just like having an extra pair of hands," Buffy said to Anubis.

"Quite," Anubis agreed, "However, I have many loyal hands." He waved a hand over a blue part of his throne -- probably a thought-interface to the ship. A door opened to her right. Buffy looked over and gaped in surprise, and then outrage caused her blood to boil with instant rage.

"What the hell is that?" Buffy demanded in anger.

"That, my dear, is yet another failure of mine caused by you," Anubis explained, as another Buffy walked into the room. She was dressed like a skanky Goa'uld ho, if Buffy was any judge. She looked vapid and subservient.

"You have walked around my galaxy thinking you came to this universe by chance. You didn't. Neither Thoth nor his pathetic students did anything without my permission. I let them explore the quantum realities of your world. And it was I who ordered them to experiment on you and the others like you. I have enemies -- not pathetic things like you and your precious SGC. No, beings with real power. I detected in your kind what I believed was a possibility to destroy my enemies. But it didn't work. I could not find the source for your power. Even after Thoth -- before you killed him -- sent me your ovary and I made a copy of you, I did not learn anything. This mindless puppet animated by one of my lieutenants has not allowed me to learn what the source of your power is. But you will, girl. You are the original. And I have the means of learning everything I want to know," Anubis said and stepped down from his throne.

"You and Thoth are the same. You're complete idiots. I am not some thing you can just make carbon copies of and send into war like the idiots who serve you. I am the Slayer. I am not your weapon," Buffy said.

Anubis laughed and stretched out a hand. It held what Buffy recognized from the descriptions was a mind probe. A small ball with metal spikes. She also knew from reports that the implantation of it was supposed to be horrendously painful. She knew something else, too, though. It was time soon. She took a deep breath and tried to remember what the Universe had instructed her to do.

---------

"SG-1, be advised. You have Al'kesh and a few gliders incoming. We're sending help," the SGC said over the radio.

"Just buy us some time," Jonas replied. He looked over his shoulder, past Bra'tac at the controls, to where Teal'c, Daniel and Sam were helping Jack make the ring platform back into a ring platform. He wondered if he should join them. An orange bolt whizzed past their view screen and created a crater in the ice beneath them.

"Help is here, boys and girls. Blue squadron, break and attack. Cover SG-1 at all cost," the voice of Major Mitchell said over the radio.

The seconds ticked on. A major dogfight between F-305s and Anubis' ships was happening just outside the window. "Jonas!" Sam called. Jonas couldn't help smiling as he got up, grabbing his rifle as he went to ring down into what they hoped was Atlantis with his team.

---------

"My Lord, our ships on the surface report that SG-1 has descended into the ice at the South pole of their world," Herak said, loathing to interrupt just as his lord was about to take his prisoner away for interrogation.

"It seems your interrogation has to wait," his lord said and went back to stand at his throne, getting ready to activate his tele-presence projector -- another invention taken from the Asgard.

A while passed, with his lord speaking in the human tongue about something being too late. Suddenly his lord turned and said, "Aim all our weapons at that spot. Do it, do it now," Anubis commanded.

---------

Buffy vaulted backwards, hoping her judgment of the distance had been correct. She felt her feet slip over the shoulders of her target. Using the hook she was shackled to, she pulled her body forward towards the floor. "Stop this!" Anubis yelled. She could hear a pair of feet running towards her. She sat back and pushed herself as far back as her shackles allowed. She came to rest on Herak's chest. He struggled to get her off. She placed her hands under his chin and pushed up with all her strength until he looked straight up; then she hammered her hands down. Herak started thrashing around, but his windpipe was crushed. Her clone hammered into her. Buffy grappled it just as she heard a staff weapon ready itself. She tossed her clone in the direction of the noise.

There was a snap! hiss! and her clone landed with a burning hole in her chest, mid-way between Buffy and the left corridor where two ready and armed Jaffa stood aiming staff weapons at her. Anubis held up his hand, stalling their fire.

"Now what purpose did that serve? I will just restore my First Prime using the sarcophagus. In fact, I am tempted to have my Jaffa just shoot you and bring you back later. I can do that many times, you know," Anubis said.

"Death is my gift. I am not afraid of it," she said defiantly. A orange flickering light shone in from the window.

"What is that?" Anubis asked.

"What we were waiting for," Buffy said grimly. Now it was all up to her. The universe had shown her the way. She looked over her shoulder as the strange, white-hot-looking tentacled device from her vision hammered through the window and hit her. Everything turned white and peaceful.

---------

Sam felt exhausted physically and emotionally, but she didn't have time to deal with it. She had just been briefed on the basics of the battle with Anubis' fleet on her flight from the Antarctic battlefield near Atlantis to the SGC. She was to fly from Patterson to the Mountain. But on the way in she could see why everyone was so busy. Not only was the airfield littered with F-302s in every condition possible, but there were also gliders, tel'tak, and even a crashed pair of Al'kesh. She winced at the thought of how much information would leak. She had gotten out of the Antarctic on a Tel'tak detailed temporarily as a SAR shuttle -- one of many actually.

"Colonel, I am glad to see you," a familiar voice greeted her as she stepped out of the Tel'tak that had taken her home at record speed. Sergeant Siler had apparently been detailed to taking her to the mountain. A squad of security personnel was right behind him. The mom in her wanted to ask about her daughter, but the military officer wanted to ask about the security.

"I wish we could spare a ship to take you to the ring at the mountain, ma'am, but we're gonna have to make do with a helicopter," Siler explained. Sam just nodded, trying to cope with the sight of utter destruction she was seeing all around.

"Just before General O'Neill did his thing, a group of Anubis' fighters and bombers followed a squad down and did an attack-run on this place. But that is the least of our problems. The Prometheus made a controlled landing at Area 52, but the Daedalus was lost with all hands. The Rebel Ha'tak blew during re-entry, but the Jaffa escaped using the rings, and most who survived are either here or in the Mountain. There is real trouble, though, ma'am. We might be facing public disclosure. Before the battle, Anubis started disrupting satellite communications world-wide, but not enough to prevent the news networks from being on alert about something. One of Anubis' Ha'tak crashed in Eastern Germany. The EU and NATO are up in arms. The Chinese, of course, are angry at not having been informed about everything going on. The General is very busy at the moment, and the Pentagon and the White House are probably going to be running wild for a while. I wonder how we'll handle it, ma'am," Siler said.

"Badly at first, Siler -- we're still human, after all. But after the fear, things might be okay," she said. Siler led her towards a helicopter.

"Siler, about my daughter . . . ?" she asked.

"Sorry, Ma'am, I don't know. I just know she went up with Blue Squadron," Siler said.

Sam suppressed a gasp. Most of Blue Squadron was on the SARs coming out of the Antarctic. They had taken a beating to protect her team. Sam wondered if Buffy was on her way home now, just waiting for her landing permit. She also hoped Jonas, Teal'c and Daniel would come back soon, but she understood why they wanted to stay and watch over Jack in his stasis pod.

---------

Sam sat at General Hammond's conference table, answering yet another set of questions from Major Davis that he had been told to ask on behalf of the Pentagon. The President needed all the facts. She could appreciate that. However, Sam was a mom -- and a mom whose daughter had just been in a major military engagement. She was getting anxious at the lack of news or mention from anyone. Daniel walked up. He and Teal'c had gotten back from Atlantis a little after her own arrival. Jonas had apparently won their drawing-of-straws and the right to stay behind. Davis nodded to her and headed for General Hammond's office, where the General had the Pentagon on speaker phone.

"Sam," Daniel said. She knew immediately. It was in his eyes, in the tone of his voice. He had grave news. It was the tone her dad had used to tell her of her mom's death and to tell her of his cancer.

"No," she protested.

"Buffy is missing in action. According to NORAD and NASA, her F-305 was destroyed along with its drone Deathglider after impacting the shields of Anubis' ship. They registered three successful engagements on the way in. She won all of them and seemed alright," Daniel explained.

"Drone Deathglider?" she asked.

"Buffy came up with a plan several days ago," General Hammond said as he entered the room. "She had apparently had a prophetic dream which had given her assurances that an earlier idea of hers could work. She wrote up a brief she called 'The Stake Plan'. She hoped she'd be able to strike a deadly blow against Anubis, or at least his fleet. And it worked. However, we could only get twelve gliders ready. They were set to follow remote instructions, just as they could from a Ha'tak, only tied to an F-305 instead. They were then loaded with a remote-controlled, naquadriah-fueled F-302 hyperdrive and a naquadah-enhanced nuclear warhead. The plan was to jump them inside the shield or even into the target mothership and detonate. It worked," he said.

"Why didn't she tell us, sir?" she asked.

"She didn't want to worry you or the rest of SG-1." General Hammond paused, then looking slightly guilty he admitted, "I knew she was holding something grave back. I believe she may have seen her death in her vision. She left messages and a will in her office, just in case."

"No, she is not dead! She can't just be dead! Not like this! I never got to say goodbye," Sam yelled, then broke down in tears. Daniel stepped up and held her for a while. Sam felt the presence of General Hammond fade and the door to his office closed to give her privacy.

"Shhh," Daniel whispered, "nothing is sure yet. She might not be dead. Why would she just crash her ship like that?"

But Sam couldn't believe him. She acknowledged it in her heart. There was something amiss in her world. There had been since the Antarctic. Now she knew what it was: Buffy was gone from her world. Her beautiful daughter had died in the battle to save yet another world.

---------

Buffy awoke in what looked like fine white desert sand. A baking sun was overhead.

"So this is where you feel at home. Strange seeing as you're a typical human from another environment," a thin Egyptian man called out to her.

"Only the part of me you so desperately wanted to know likes this place," she replied. In her mind she could hear the beckoning threnody that always rang in this world.

"I don't think you understand. Neither the so-called Ancients nor Oma Desala herself could stop me. I will just move to another body. And what will you do? You're dead, little human girl," Anubis proclaimed.

Buffy ran at the man and launched herself into a massive kick. The rail-thin Egyptian flew down to the bottom of the dune they had been standing on. Buffy charged after.

"Impossible!" the man said, coughing in pain.

Buffy lifted him to his feet by grabbing a bunch of his white smock and said, "I thought we had been introduced. Let's try again. Hi, my name is Buffy, I'll be your Slayer this evening." She took grasped his head with both hands.

He fought back, his hands grabbing hers. Fire sprang from his fingertips, and he yelled in anger and pain. Buffy winced but didn't say anything as she placed her fingers over the man's eyes and pressed. Her pain grew and grew. Suddenly she had a feeling like she was pressing her fingers through Jell-o. The fire stopped, his fingers went limp. The body shuddered once, then fell silent. Buffy let go of Anubis and looked around. Beneath her the body seemed to rot away within moments.

A dark-haired woman she had seen before stood at the foot of the dune. Hundreds of others – fuzzy, almost ghost-like in appearance -- stood in the distance beyond her. The woman looked shocked to her core. "How? How can you damage an ascended being?" she asked.

"Oma -- right?" Buffy asked.

"Yes," the woman agreed and nodded.

"Are you sure you're so ascended, or is that just a name? How can you be anything like a being with an enlightened nature? True enlightenment isn't transcending the human or Ancient form, nor is it being transformed into an energy-like being with the help of friends or technology. Especially when you're then able to spawn mistakes like Anu-bitch. Take it from someone who has been to Heaven: this is only an approximation. Ever considered that you might be on the wrong path or caught at a dead end?" Buffy asked.

"You're not enlightened," Oma declared.

"No, not me, I am just a regular girl on a visit to Ascension land," Buffy said. The Ghost of Tara appeared to the left of her. Oma and the others faded out of sight, looking horrified as they vanished. Buffy wondered if she had gotten through to them. She had come to consider the Ascension offered by the Ancients a crutch and a dead end. Ever since Orlin had told her about it she had doubted it. It was not some blessed state, but probably just some energy-being form created by the Ancients to go and be immortal and god-like, but not the path to perfection or the afterlife.

"You managed to shift into this state just in time," Tara said.

"I was so afraid it wouldn't work," Buffy admitted. It would be pointless to lie to the Universe, she reasoned.

"I had faith in you. And, well, I did instruct you, didn't I?" Tara said and smiled.

"Thanks. Can I keep doing this, then?" she asked.

"Maybe, but this shift is very dangerous and you need my help to get you all the way here for now. As you age and learn, that may change. You should still avoid it, at all costs, if you can. Even if you manage it again each time you come here, it will get harder to leave... You know, the Ascended aren't all wrong as far as I know," Tara said.

"Probably not, but they're still people which means that they aren't right either. They've got to face that they can make mistakes, too," Buffy said.

"Ready to go?" Tara asked and held out her hand.

"Sure," Buffy admitted, and again there was white-hot pain.

---------

"Try to take it easy for a while," the words echoed for Buffy's ears only as the regular world faded in again. Buffy looked around her. Daniel and her mom were standing in the window of the control room high above her, overlooking the gate room. Buffy rose and turned -- the gate was shutting down. The next thing she noticed was the rather drafty state of things. She looked down at herself and let out a shocked screech. She was quite naked in front of all the marines and airmen. Quickly she covered up as well as she could with her hands and arms and dashed to the back of the room to find some sort of cover. She felt like every part of her body was blushing.

Epilogue:

"So they're gonna go for full disclosure?" Buffy asked, sitting leaned against her mom, who was dressed completely civilian for once.

"Yes, the President believes there is no other option. There are major consequences for us, as well. The G7 countries, the EU, the Chinese, the Russians, even the UN -- everyone is saying the same. If the US keeps to its course of hoarding the alien secrets and power gained through the Gate, then they'll have no other option than to band together and launch a nuclear strike against us. They fear that some new and more warlike administration would come to power over here in the hysteria that is sure to follow, which could stoop to using our new space warfare capacity to turn them all into slaves to our nation. I don't believe this is possible, but they are very adamant," General Hammond admitted.

"You can't see that happening? Come on, you're not that naive, sir. The first fear- or hate-monger who comes to power, and it will happen. One of the base requirements for becoming a politician is the desire for power. They all have it in them, sir. I think the rest of the world is right. No matter the bureaucratic and political mess it will be, I think having the entire world protecting the entire world is the only way to go. We've got to face it at some point here. The USA is far from being the entire world nor its single protector," Buffy said.

General Hammond gave her a dissatisfied look, but said nothing else.

"And Anubis is gone for good?" Daniel asked.

"Killed him good and proper. Jack got his body with his Ancient-weapon light show, and I got the Ascended bits. Really, in the end, it was an easy gig. Well aside from the slight case of dying and all," Buffy said.

"So, what now?" her mom asked. Buffy leaned back into her arms. Even though she was alive to tell the tale, dying again had brought up some old feelings that Buffy had a hard time both admitting to and facing again. Having her mom there to hold her and tell her that things would be okay again was helping though.

"The SGC is coordinating efforts to capture any Jaffa that may have escaped to Earth, while the UN is leading the discussion, first of all, about what to do with the Atlantis Base and if it might lead us to the real Atlantis," General Hammond explained.

"I'm fairly certain Jonas and I will be able to help there -- at least once we're allowed back in the Ancient outpost," Daniel said.

"I have to help Teal'c with the Jaffa resistance. We're going off-world in a few days. I might not be back for a while. We're a mess right now, but if we get our asses in gear, we'll be able to really get the rebellion going. Anubis did us quite a favor by killing most of the System Lords, but sooner rather than later another one of those parasites is going to try and copy his methods," Buffy explained.

"You can't leave so soon again, Buffy," her mom complained.

"Mom, don't worry. I will always come back. After all, I came all the way from another universe just to find my way home," Buffy said.

--The End--

**Author's end notes:**

I have to start out by thanking my betas for helping me keeping this story together. Especially RevDorothyL who has been invaluable and has kept this Dane from overly misusing the language. I hope you've all enjoyed the ride as much as I have.

Going Home started as a simple idea of inserting Buffy into the life of Sam Carter and as grown organically from there. Inspired by the Cassandra episodes of Stargate (Sam has good chemistry with kids) and a couple of Buffy-family insertion fics on this site I wanted to try my hand at my first crossover. It seems to have been a success. Originally envisioned as a much shorter story (around 60000 words) it has grown a bit thanks to the reviews and general kindness held in them. I want to thank all my reviewers for giving me the energy to finish this story to my satisfaction. And finally to all that have read this far. I hope you enjoyed the ride.


End file.
